Erasmus School of Economics
2012
REPORT ANNUAL
Index 01 Introduction
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07
Interview Philip Hans Franses
08
Interview Ivo Arnold
10
02 Education
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13
02.01
Studying at ESE
15
02.02 Quality
21
02.03 Awards
23
02.04
Bachelor’s Programmes
25
02.05
Master’s Programmes
28
Interview Erik Kole
32
Interview Kirsten Rohde
34
Interview Bas Jacobs
36
Interview Josse Delfgaauw
38
03 Research
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03.01
Research at ESE
43
03.02
Rewarding Excellence
44
03.03 Funding
51
03.04 Integrity
52
03.05
55
Research Programmes
03.06 Publications
60
Interview Eddy van Doorslaer
62
Interview Jan Stoop
64
Interview Maarten Bosker
66
Interview Stefan Stremersch & Benedict Dellaert
68
Interview Bauke Visser
70
04 08
04 Knowledge Valorisation
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73
04.01
Building partnerships
75
04.02
The intrinsic bond between academia, society and the philanthropy sector
80
04.03
Contributions to political and public debate
85
04.04
Nurturing lifelong relationships with our alumni
88
04.05
Erasmus School of Economics: a dynamic part of Rotterdam
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Interview Chen Zhou
94
Interview Hyoryung Nam
96
Interview Wilco van den Heuvel
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Interview Robert Dur
100
Interview Marco de Haas
102
05 ESE Today
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105
05.01
Organisational chart
107
05.02
ESE at a glance
108
05.03
Annual Human Resources Report
111
05.04
Annual Financial Report
130
Interview Yvonne Adema
138
Interview Ankimon Vernède
140
Interview Trudy van Florestein
142
Colophon
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05 09
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01
Introduction As stated in the documents ‘A Course Made Good’, (Erasmus School of Economics, 2009 - 2014, Outlook 2008) and the Strategic Plan 2012 - 2020, Erasmus School of Economics strives to be an internationally renowned institute that contributes scientific knowledge to major economic issues and relies on the most recent insights into the discipline. To achieve this, each of the three main scopes Education, Scientific Research and Knowledge Valorisation needs to be successful in itself as well as in the interaction between the fields. In the Annual Report 2012 in front of you, ESE shows what has been achieved in the past year in each of the three fields.
www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
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07 09
Interview
Philip Hans Franses Professor of Applied Econometrics and Professor of Marketing Research. Dean of Erasmus School of Economics.
As I have done for about ten years, I gave a course on Marketing Research for some 150 students in 2012. They had to do two assignments in small teams and an open-book exam. These eight weeks in January-February are always quite intense but also very rewarding. Every year, I am impressed by what some teams can achieve, and I usually recruit my future student research assistants from this group. In terms of research I was lucky to cooperate with three young female academics from Anton de Kom University in Suriname. We collected and analysed novel data on the Surinamese Stock Exchange, the brain drain and the adoption of counterfeit products, all resulting in papers that hopefully will be published in high-quality journals. The future
LSE has a reputation level
For over 25 years now, I have
that we too can achieve,
really enjoyed my work at
with some work. Closer ties
ESE. Working as an academic
with alumni, business leaders
is rewarding; you can
(many of whom graduated
choose how to contribute
from ESE), and the local
to scientific progress and
community will certainly help.
you can investigate various
One of my dreams is to have
topics. But teaching is one of
our own ESE guest house
my favourite activities and
for our foreign students and
it still is very nice to meet
staff. Another dream is our
At the same time, I worked
former students and to hear
own television studio. It
with various colleagues at
from them through social
would be great to hear the
ESE on a range of different
media. The general level of
anchorman on the 8 o’clock
projects. And that range is
quality at ESE is very high,
news say: “And for economic
something worth mentioning;
and this also shows in the
news, we will now switch to
the available knowledge and
students, who work hard and
Rotterdam, where we will
skills at ESE is amazing! I
are quite clever. As a Dean
talk to Professor...”.
feel that each year my new
I have a long-term agenda.
PhD students get better and
I envision ESE developing
better, and it is always great
in the direction of London
fun to work with them.
School of Economics.
08
Interview
"ESE is a great institution with hard-working people, talented students and formidable colleagues. Working here truly is rewarding and for ESE, 2013 will surely be a smashing year!"
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Interview
"I hope all of us appreciate what a privilege it is to work at ESE, enjoying the academic freedom and the opportunity to educate young people."
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Professor of Economic Education (ESE) and Professor of Monetary Economics (Nyenrode University). Vice Dean of Erasmus School of Economics.
As Vice Dean I have overall responsibility for the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes at ESE. There were many highlights in 2012, such as the start of the International Econometrics Bachelor’s programme and the addition of two new Master’s specialisations - Behavioural Economics and Policy Economics - to our Master’s portfolio. September 2012 also saw a record intake of international students. For me personally, the most challenging project was the start of “Nominal = Normal” at ESE. Research
2013
I am focused on solving
My top priority is to make
problems and gradually
sure the “N=N” pilot will
improving the way we
be a success. Another very
organise our education
important event for ESE is
at ESE. My approach to
the midterm educational
policymaking is evidence-
review, which is held in the
based: good policy should
spring. I am confident ESE
be backed up by decent
will pass the review with
empirical evidence. This is
flying colours. I’m looking
also why I started doing
forward to the Centennial
“N = N” involves challenging
educational research when I
celebration. We will not only
first-year students to finish
became Programme Director.
reflect on our School’s many
their first Bachelor’s year in
I want to evaluate the effects
achievements and highlights
one go (that is, without the
of our educational policies
in the past 100 years, but
need to re-sit examinations).
on students’ behaviour and
we will also - especially -
It is a very ambitious project
results. I do both educational
look to the future. Another
aimed at fundamentally
research and research in
exciting development will be
changing attitudes. In
monetary economics, which
the introduction of the new
consultation with our School
is my original field. The latter
double Bachelor’s degree in
Council, we decided in
has become more and more
Economics and Econometrics.
early 2012 to join the EUR
exciting since the credit
Personally, I plan on finding
N=N pilot study. A second
crunch and the euro crisis,
the time to do more research
highlight for me was when
and it is sometimes hard to
in monetary economics as
one of my blogs was picked
split my attention between
the crisis provides a range of
up by Reuters Breaking News
the two.
natural experiments pushing the field forward.
and mentioned in the New York Times.
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Interview
Ivo Arnold
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02
Education Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) aims to shape the leaders of tomorrow by placing academic education in economics in the centre of our activities and providing challenging programmes that combine the theoretical and practical expertise of our academic staff.
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02 Education
#
15
02.02 Quality
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02.03 Awards
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02.04 Bachelor’s Programmes
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02.05 Master’s Programmes
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02.01 Studying at ESE
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2
Education
Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) aims to achieve a high level of excellence in teaching for national and international students in order to deliver confident, skilled and inquisitive graduates, ready to embark on inspiring careers that make a significant contribution to society and bring out the very best in themselves. We make an effort to recruit top-quality and motivated students, to help them select the right course and support them where needed during their studies. In the first part of this chapter we inform you about the procedures and developments of ESE’s education programme by highlighting elements of studying at ESE, the quality of our education and significant theses and awards. In the second part of this chapter, we present our Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes and their innovations.
02.01 - Studying at ESE ESE offers excellent and challenging Bachelor’s and Master’s curriculums to prepare today’s students for their future careers. In the academic year 2012-2013, a total of 5,199 students are enrolled at ESE: 3,104 Bachelor’s students and 2,095 Master’s students. In the academic year 2011-2012 this number was 5,067: 3,133 Bachelor’s students and 1,934 Master’s students. The increase in the number of Master’s students seems to be caused by students terminating their Bachelor’s Programme with less delay and more foreign students attending Master’s programmes at ESE. The decrease in the number of Bachelor’s students seems to be caused by the fact that students are completing their studies faster. 1,000 new students On Monday 3 September 2012, the ESE Take-Off was held for all new restored C-hall. The influx of new students exceeded ESE’s expectations, such as the numbers of international students walking through the hallways of our campus. With four Bachelor’s programmes in Dutch, two international, English-language programmes and five, mostly English, Master’s programmes with twenty specialisations, ESE students come from at least 45 countries.
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students. ESE welcomed around 1,000 new Bachelor’s students in the newly
Therefore, there are at least 40 different languages spoken by the students attending our programmes. Besides the usual groups of students from the Netherlands, China and Germany, International Bachelor Economics and Business Economics (IBEB) and Econometrics boast students from countries like Iran, Israel, Jordan, Russia, New Zealand, Indonesia, South Korea, Poland, Canada, the U.S. and Australia. In short, it’s quite a mixed group. Summer course in Mathematics To ensure that all students start their academic year well prepared, ESE offers an online summer course in Mathematics for its starting students. After completing this programme, students are sure to have the appropriate starting level for the Mathematics 1 course. Furthermore, they receive a bonus credit for the Mathematics 1 mid-term exams. This course has really proved its success by now. Students who have completed the summer course tend to achieve an average of one grade higher in Mathematics 1 than those who did not take the course. ESE introduces ‘Nominal is Normal’ in 2012-2013 In the system of the binding study advice, “bindend studie advies (BSA)”, of the past years, students had to obtain a minimum of ECTS to be allowed to continue their study. After having received a positive recommendation from the School Council, the management team of ESE decided in mid-April 2012 to partake in the second round of the ‘Nominal is normal’ (N=N) pilot project of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). As from the academic year 2012-2013, all students are therefore required to obtain the full 60 European Credits (EC) in one year. That’s quite a challenge for both the students and ESE, but we have faith in a good outcome since many plans that are part of the N=N education system have already been implemented at ESE for a while now and have proven its success. Examples are the options to compensate exams within clusters, the limitation of the number of re-examination opportunities, small-scale education in working groups, using blocks with only two or three subjects simultaneously, and the mentor programme in the first year of the Bachelor’s programme. And although the Go/No-Go measure is new, this is www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
merely a logical consequence of the above measures to improve the quality of the current system rather than a radical change in the educational system. It goes without saying that proper regulations have been implemented to prevent students from having to abandon their studies due to personal circumstances. At the request of the School Council and others, the pilot project will be evaluated meticulously. Additionally, multiple tools will be
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used to properly monitor students’ results in order to allow for the early detection and solution of potential problems, thereby preventing unnecessary impediments to proceeding to the second year of the Bachelor’s programme. New promotional videos to make students enthusiastic about the ESE-programmes ESE has ventured down a new avenue to recruit students for the programmes at ESE. The Facebook page of ESE features several new marketing videos designed to attract prospective students to the ESE programmes. These efforts have been successful: the video ‘Economics explained the Dutch way’, generated 4,580 YouTube views. The video ‘Econometrics explained the Dutch way’ racked up 3,166 views and reached a much larger audience than previous videos with fewer than 500 views. A promotional video generated 25,342 views and exceeded all expectations. Facebook has proven its use in promoting ESE around the world. The table below shows a clear overview of the increase in hits in 2012. Furthermore, as it becomes increasingly important to choose the right course the first time, ESE is committed to helping students make this important decision thoughtfully.
Monthly new 'likes' Daily news Items**
Jan
552 28 7421
Feb
938 47 7712
March
1447
Apr
1114 55 9352
76 11231
May
1759
Jun
1965 124 20509
96 14.203
Jul
4156 130 26198
Aug
3590 210 24166
Sep
7899 212 29872
Okt
6182 109 23956
Nov
9653 121 34032
Dec
6708 161 22008
* **
Monthly number of unique users, interacted with ESE page or hit the page and posts. Number of items viewed on news page per month.
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Month in 2012 Active users Facebook*
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Questions? Ask ESE Students can use Ask ESE and its EUR counterpart, ASK Erasmus, to find the required information easily from behind their PC or laptop. By opening the website (Ask ESE: www.eur.nl/ese/contact/ask or ASK Erasmus: www.eur. nl/essc/ask) and clicking on the Q&A category (from perspective student to Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree), a clear overview is displayed of all Q&A topics. So if a student would like to know what types of calculators are allowed during written exams or how to register for a course, or is just looking for some information on internships, Ask ESE will provide the answer. Acquiring practical experience through an internship As from the academic year 2011-2012, students have the option to complete an internship in Bachelor-3 and use this instead of a minor or to fill up the free elective space. Internships allow students to acquire valuable practical experience and apply knowledge and skills learning during their studies to a professional environment. An internship lasts eight weeks and is a fulltime activity. The internship must have an academic approach and content. Supervision during the internship consists of practical supervision by the company providing the internship, and academic supervision by ESE. Cum Laude Ceremony: Achieve your full potential www.eur.nl/ese/english/education/ese_events/cum_laude_ceremony On Wednesday, February 8 2012, the annual Cum Laude Ceremony of ESE was held. The ceremony was organised in association with Vereniging Trustfonds Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, (‘Vereniging Trustfonds’, the Trust Fund of EUR), for those ESE students who finished their Bachelor-1 year with a weighted average of 8.25 or higher. This year 30 students succeeded in meeting this requirement. In a festive setting, the excellent students were addressed by Dean Professor Philip Hans Franses and the Secretary of the Vereniging Trustfonds, Reinoud Rijntjes. Dr Bas Karreman gave an inspiring keynote address to the students with a clear and strong message that these students have to seize challenging opportunities in order to achieve their full potential. After the speech, the students received the Cum Laude Award and Professor Ivo Arnold concluded the ceremony with a toast. Bachelor Honours Class closes in style with Final Conference On 29 June 2012, with the Final Conference, the Bachelor Honours Class (BHC) came to an end for the second year’s Bachelor’s students. For the
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a motivational prize for their outstanding academic achievement. Vice Dean
first-year students this conference also represented the end of their first part of the BHC and together with the second-year students they presented their papers to fellow students, parents and ESE staff members who made this day possible. Before the presentations were held, Dr Liesbeth NoordegraafEelens (coordinator of the BHC) and Dean Professor Philip Hans Franses gave an introduction, followed by an exciting speech by Kevin Dalmeijer about his experiences during his two-year participation in the Honours Class. After this, Dr Anniek Mauser, Chief of Sustainability of Unilever Benelux talked about the Sustainable Living Plan Unilever has been developing in recent years in order to act in a more socially responsible manner. After the presentations, Professor Jan Peter Balkenende gave a speech to the students and their parents. The conference ended with a prize ceremony for best papers, sponsored by the Vereniging Trustfonds. The first prize was won by Jonas Hermans, the second prize by Jelle Nagelhoud and Matthieu Regli and the third prize by David Delgado. Caps and gowns On 1 and 2 November 2012, a total of 293 Bachelor’s students of ESE received their diplomas during a festive ceremony to commemorate the accomplishment of obtaining a Bachelor’s degree. Each year there is more demand to take part in the festivities, and for the first time this year Graduation Day was spread over two days. In 2012, 14 students graduated cum laude and one summa cum laude. Besides the presentation of the diplomas, the programme also featured the winners of the Lecturers of the Year Election and interesting keynote speeches from alumni Rob Westerhof MSc (former CEO of Philips North America and Asia) on Thursday 1 November 2012 and from Dr Pieter Verboom (former Executive Vice-President and CFO of Schiphol Airport) on Friday 2 November 2012. More than 2,400 students participate in career event The Erasmus Recruitment Days were held in February, attracting more than 2,400 students. The Erasmus Recruitment Days are co-organised by Economic Faculty Association Rotterdam (EFR), the study association of ESE. Students www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
partook in workshops, presentations, dinners and interviews of no fewer than 98 companies. The daily reception in the V building was also as busy as ever. EFR organises several events that can help students in the orientation process for their future career. In 2012 there were three Company Days during which students visited 22 companies, with an In-House day at BP’s London headquarters being the highlight. Students also joined the Business Week
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On Location to Berlin for three days. The students visited the Coca-Cola Company and were brought into contact with ten young Berlin entrepreneurs via the YouStartup workshop. They saw Berlin from an entirely creative and innovative standpoint. Finally, EFR held the Conference Day in the Maastoren, a 44-storey office skyscraper complex in Rotterdam. Students networked with business leaders such as Cees ‘t Hart, CEO of dairy company Friesland Campina, and Jack de Vries, Strategy Director at Hill and Knowlton.
02.02 - Quality To achieve its high standards and ambitions ESE has set itself, an ongoing and systematic approach to assure quality and make sure students’ expectations are met. The results of internal and external quality measurement tests are used to identify any weaknesses and make improvements where necessary. ESE topping the league table of Keuzegids Universiteiten 2013 The Bachelor’s programme in Econometrics of ESE ranks first in the league table of Keuzegids Universiteiten 2013, which is published annually by the Centre for Higher Education Information (CHOI). The publication reviews and assesses university programmes, and is therefore a 'consumer guide' for university education. The Keuzegids league table compares the Bachelor’s programmes offered by universities in the Netherlands, based on the opinions of students and experts, and ranks them according to their category. Students give their views on course content, the quality of lecturers, academic development, practical focus, workload, availability of information, and facilities. The editors of Keuzegids have compiled the league table based on the 2012 results of the National Student Survey (NSE). When only a small sample of students is available for a given programme, the results of the 2012 and 2010 surveys are both included. The expert appraisals are based on the reports and accreditation decisions released by NVAO, the official accreditation body in the Netherlands and Flanders. Information drawn from the Central Registry for Higher Education Programmes (CROHO), and research results gathered university associations, is also used. With ESE topping this league table and the Erasmus Business Administration and Psychology programmes in Rotterdam also achieving first place, Erasmus University Rotterdam as a whole ranks among the top universities in the Netherlands.
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from the 2011 WO-Monitor (University Education Monitor) by the VSNU/IVA
Institutional evaluation: effective quality assurance system at EUR? The performance of the quality assurance system is a primary focus of the institutional accreditation scheme of the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). To achieve and maintain quality, a sense of responsibility is needed from the top policymakers right down to the lecturers doing the teaching. In April 2012, an independent committee visited EUR to assess whether the Board of Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Board of the Schools are using an effective quality assurance system that guarantees the quality of the programmes being offered. As a result, EUR must meet the required standards for institutional accreditation by summer 2013. Student Satisfaction Each year we measure the standard student satisfaction for each course per phase (B1, B2, B3 en M). Our efforts to develop our courses and to improve the quality have been rewarded, since the past five years show an annual positive development in student satisfaction per course. On a scale from 1 to 5, the total score improved from 3.97 in 2010-2011 to 4.02 in 2011-2012. We aim to continue this positive trend.
Ba1
Ba2
Ba3
Ma
Total
2007-2008
3.73 3.67 3.84 3.96 3.84
2008-2009
3.74 3.66 3.96 4.00 3.90
2009-2010
3.86 3.63 3.93 4.01 3.90 3.92 3.84 3.97 4.05 3.97 3.94 3.89 4.07 4.07 4.02
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2010-2011 2011-2012
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02.03 - Awards At ESE, we are committed to rewarding high performance. By presenting awards, we show our appreciation for our students, colleagues and others. And receiving an award means deserved recognition for hard and great efforts. Lecturers of the Year Election Each year our students elect the lecturers they feel provided the best teaching over the past academic year. After the shortlist is published containing the best-performing lecturers of each of ESE’s Bachelor’s programmes, students can vote for their favourite and the winners are announced at the Bachelor’s Programmes Graduation Day in November and presented with a specially designed award and a prize. Lecturers of the year 2011-2012 are Dr Bas Karreman (Economics and Business Economics), Dr Benoit Crutzen (International Bachelor’s programme in Economics and Business Economics), Dr Christiaan Heij (Econometrics and Operations Research) and Mr Dick van Sprundel (Economics of Taxation). Best MSc thesis award for research on sustainable governance Sanne Roosendaal, a 2012 graduate (Cum Laude) of ESE, wrote a thesis in which she examined executive pay at international companies and specifically the relationship between sustainability objectives and rewards. As part of her research, she investigated to what extent companies put sustainability objectives forward in determining directors' remuneration, what sustainability objectives are used and whether inclusion of sustainability objectives in rewards contributes to sustainability. The results suggest that the use of sustainability objectives in rewards can indeed contribute to sustainability. With her thesis 'Sustainability targets in executive remuneration: An analysis of the contribution of sustainability targets in executive remuneration to sustainable development', Sanne Roosendaal won the 2011 Eumedion thesis prize. This prize is awarded annually for the best thesis on environmental, social and / or corporate governance aspects of investing (ESG) and / or corporate social responsibility (CSR). The main purpose of the Eumedion corporate governance. Sanne Roosendaal’s work is relevant because while the inclusion of sustainability objectives rewards is increasingly common practice, academic knowledge about this subject is still in its infancy. The little research that is available focuses on the motivations for this trend (‘why’). Knowledge about the forms and effects of the trend is hardly available at all (‘how’).
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thesis prize is to promote research and publications about sustainability and
Best Paper Award: Economies of Scale in Dutch hospitals, an illusion? On 15 June 2012, first-year students Sven van Kan and Eric-Jan Troost received the Best Paper Award for their paper ‘Economies of Scale in Dutch hospitals, an illusion?' It is a very topical issue, and the results of the analysis were very interesting and contributed to current findings in this area of research, according to Dr Bas Karreman, who was very positive about the overall level of the papers submitted this year. They were selected from more than 700 students in Economics & Business Economics and IBEB. This was the first time students were asked to write an academic paper in groups of two on this particular course. A total of 28 papers were nominated, out of which Dr Bas Karreman and Dr Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens eventually selected three papers that were shortlisted. The other nominated papers, ‘The Influence of Myopic Agents on the Effectiveness of Remuneration Systems: a TheoreticalEmpirical Investigation of Principal-Agent Problems in the Investment Banking Sector’ (Niels Geesing and Nir Veledniger, both IBEB) and ‘Economies of Scale in Municipalities’ (Jan van Unnik and Jonas Hermans, both IBEB as well) were also very impressive. The winning duo and the runners-up are given the opportunity to rewrite their paper under supervision of Bas Karreman, to make it suitable for publication in a specialist academic journal. Summa Cum Laude graduation - International Bachelor’s programmes in Economics and Business Economics (IBEB) Joost van Gemeren graduated from IBEB Summa Cum Laude, with an average of 9.01. This makes him one of the few ESE Bachelor’s students to have achieved this excellent result. On Thursday 6 December 2012, Joost van Gemeren was put in the spotlight by Vice Dean Professor Ivo Arnold. To emphasise this very special occasion, Joost received a book with a personal message from Dean Professor Philip Hans Franses, presented by Professor Ivo Arnold and, of course, congratulations from everyone at ESE. Lithuanian Prime Minister receives World Leader Cycle Award On 31 January 2012 the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Andrius Kubilius, received the World Leader Cycle Award on behalf of the Economic Faculty www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
Association Rotterdam (EFR). The ceremony was opened by the Chairman of the Executive Board of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Pauline van der Meer Mohr and Professor Jan Peter Balkenende (former Prime Minister of the Netherlands). Prime Minister Kubilius talked in his speech titled 'Crisis in Europe: lessons learned, lessons ignored', about the position of Lithuania in the European crisis. The World Leader Cycle Award is awarded annually by
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EFR to a world leader for his or her outstanding performance in the political, economic or social environment.
02.04 - Bachelor’s Programmes ESE is a leading institution with a strong international dimension. Besides Dutch Bachelor’s programmes, it also offers two international Bachelor’s programmes. And for excellent, highly ambitious students, a combined LLM/MSc Bachelor’s degree course is offered and a new double Bachelor’s programme in Economics and Econometrics is currently being developed. In the Academic Year 2012-2013, ESE offered the Bachelor’s Programmes in Economics and Business Economics (Dutch), International Bachelor’s Programme in Economics and Business Economics (English), Econometrics and Operational Research (Dutch), International Bachelor Econometrics and Operations Research (English, new), Economics of Taxation (Dutch) and the combined LLM and MSc Bachelor’s degrees (Dutch). Economics and Business Economics (Dutch) Business Economics (IBEB, English) The Bachelor’s Degree in (International) Economics and Business Economics offers students a broad and thorough education in Economics, combining fundamental academic knowledge and up-to-date issues, with a sharp understanding of reality to prepare students well for business life. Both the Dutch and the International Bachelor’s programme answer questions like ‘What impact does the current financial crisis have on the global economy?’ and ‘How will China’s rapidly growing economy affect the global market?’ While the traditional Dutch programme suits students who prefer to attend lectures in their own language, the international programme is designed for international students and Dutch students who have an international focus, are eager to learn and would like to study alongside international students. The International Bachelor’s programme in Economics and Business Economics students in 2012, of which 60% are international.
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(IBEB) grew by more than 30% over last year, with around 200 IBEB first-year
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Econometrics and Operational Research (Dutch) International Bachelor’s programme in Econometrics and Operations Research (English) In addition to the Bachelor’s programme in Econometrics and Operational Research for Dutch students, a new ESE’s Bachelor’s programme kicked off in September 2012: the International Bachelor’s in Econometrics and Operations Research. This new programme is in line with the strong international research reputation of the Econometrics Institute. Moreover, there is a large demand from companies for econometricians who were taught in English. In order to offer these students good career opportunities, ESE began offering an English-taught Bachelor’s programme in Econometrics, (besides the existing international/English programme in Economics), from September 2012. The influx of 41 new students, 21 of whom are from an international background, exceeded our expectations. Both the Dutch and the English Econometrics programme are designed for students who like to answer questions such as: 'How risky is the international banking system?' and 'How to find the best sites to post online ads?' and 'Do you wonder how to operate a supply chain that links China, Europe and the US, or whether we could have predicted the financial crisis and the great recession?' This programme consists of courses in mathematics, statistics and economics. These courses provide students with the skills to understand economic processes, to turn them into quantitative models, and to use mathematics and statistics to find the answers people are looking for. The English programme in an international classroom is a perfect start for a career in international finance, marketing or logistics. Economics of Taxation This Bachelor’s programme offers an education in both economics and tax law, to suit the strong demand of government and companies for employees with a broad, thorough background in both fields. A good part of the decisions companies make are subject to tax regulations, for example international investment or expansion, mergers, etc. European legislation has a great impact on Dutch taxes, and many of the economic decisions the government makes, are tax based. This programme is only offered in Dutch and suits students with www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
an interest in economics and tax law.
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15th Anniversary of the combined LL.M and MSc Programme The combined LLM and MSc programme is now in its 15th year. On Tuesday 16 October 2012, on behalf of ESE, Dean Professor Philip Hans Franses, gave a small gift to Dr Louis Visscher of Erasmus School of Law, as a token of appreciation for his efforts. Dr Visscher has been involved in this very successful programme, which is unique in the Netherlands and very highly regarded on the labour market, since its infancy. The programme provides for a BSc as well as MSc degree. As to Professor Philip Hans Franses, Dr Louis Visscher has been an enthusiastic advocate for the programme ever since its inception, as well as being there for the students. In sharing knowledge, coaching the students, and helping them when they get stuck, Louis Visscher is truly a ‘father’ to the combined programme.
02.05 - Master’s Programmes In the academic year 2012-2013, three new Master’s specialisations are being offered alongside the existing programmes. There are currently around 20 Master’s specialisations in all varieties. Students can obtain an MSc in Accounting, Auditing and Control. An MSc in Economics and Business can be obtained in Accounting and Finance, Behavioural Economics, Economics of Management and Organisations, Entrepreneurship and Strategy Economics, Financial Economics, Health Economics, International Economics, Marketing, Policy Economics or Urban Economics or Port and Transport Economics. An MSc in Econometrics and Management Science is available in Econometrics, Operations Research and Quantitative Logistics, Quantitative Financing and Quantitative Marketing. An MSc in Fiscal Economics is offered in Dutch only. Students with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Informatics, which is no longer offered, can still earn an MSc in Economics and Informatics in cooperation with Rotterdam School of Management and the MSc in Econometrics and Management Science. And for those admitted to the highly selective MPhil programmes, Tinbergen Institute offers a Research Master’s in Economics and Erasmus Research Institute of Management a www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
Research Master’s in Business Research.
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ESE offers three new Master’s specialisations As from the academic year 2012-2013, ESE offers three new Master’s specialisations: Behavioural Economics, Economics of Management and Organisation, and Policy Economics. • Behavioural Economics combines mainstream economics with behavioural economics. As for the mainstream economics part, one of three tracks can be chosen which consist of courses and seminars from other specialisations: Financial Economics, Economics of Management and Organisation, or Marketing. • Economics of Management and Organisation combines economic theory, empirical analysis, and practical applications to provide valuable insights into the effects of managerial decision-making and organisational design on the behaviour of people in the organisation and on organisational performance. • Policy Economics is designed for students who want to work as policy economists in government, advisory and supervision institutions, research institutions and non-profit organisations. These institutions need excellent policy economists who are analytical, socially engaged and aim to solve economic problems. Further development in education To respond to the demand from, talented, high-achieving students who wish to increase their knowledge in both fields, in 2012 it is decided to start a ‘double’ Bachelor’s degree in economics and econometrics (BSc2 in Econometrics and Economics) in September 2013. For these students, the programmes of the Bachelor’s in Economics and the Bachelor’s in Econometrics will be combined in a four-year programme. After completing this programme, students can
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attend both master programmes and so earn a double MSc.
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Master Thesis All students complete their Master’s programme with a thesis. In 2012 several theses were written with significant outcome for research relating to the dayto-day affairs of companies or government. We are proud of our students for having accomplished wonderful theses showing that they are able to convert their theoretical knowledge into day-to-day practice. Some noteworthy theses include: - Earnings Management and State Ownership: Evidence from China, author Min Chen, supervisor Dr Lili Dai. - The Effect of Corporate Social Performance Incentives, author Oxana Krasyuk, supervisor Dr Karen Maas. - Forecasting Exchange Rates with Macroeconomic Fundamentals, author Ralph Verhoeks, supervisor Dr Remco Zwinkels. - A Bayesian Model Averaging Approach to Exchange Rate Forecasting, author Harm J. Polman, supervisor Dr Vadym Volosovych. - Using Competition and Market Information to Optimize a Tour Operator’s Pricing Decisions, author Arno Witte, supervisor Dr Adriana Gabor. - Allocating CO2 Emissions to Customers on a Distribution Route, author Steffie K. Naber, supervisor Dr Wilco van den Heuvel. - Managing Public Interests, Governmental Exposure to Default Risks in the Social Housing Sector, author Ayman El Idrissi, supervisor Professor Jarig van Sinderen. - Determining the Best Multi-Echelon Spare Parts Inventory Structure for Fokker Services, author Joni Radelaar, supervisor Professor Rommert Dekker. - Evaluation of Scalarization Methods and NSGA-II/SPEA2 Genetic Algorithms for Multi-objective Optimization of Green Supply Chain Design, author Corné van der Plas, supervisors Professor Rommert Dekker and Dr Tommi Tervonen. To give a better idea of how academic and theoretically sound theses can match practical application, we would like to mention the following good examples: - Consumer Behavior in the Waiting Area, author Rhonda van den Dries, supervisor Professor Isabel Verniers. To minimise an objective and unpleasant waiting time, as perceived by consumers, types of distraction that customers www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
desired most were tested. The results showed that the following distractions reduced perceived waiting time (in order of decreasing importance): engaging tasks (magazines, free internet), entertainment (music, art and TV) and information (leaflets/brochures). Older people were interested in entertainment, which might be explained by the fact that this is a more passive type of distraction.
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- Barriers and Triggers to Green Entrepreneurship: An Exploratory Study, author Mahalia von Wallenberg Pachaly, supervisor Dr Brigitte Hoogendoorn. This empirical thesis extends current knowledge on barriers and triggers to green entrepreneurship. It compares nascent green entrepreneurs, i.e. entrepreneurs who are planning to launch green products or services, with entrepreneurs that are not planning to take steps regarding green product or service offerings. Results suggest two barriers that are specifically perceived by nascent green entrepreneurs i.e. a lack of public support and insufficient demand from consumers. In addition, results suggest that providing both financial incentives and support with respect to operational issues may trigger nascent green entrepreneurs. Thus, with respect to both triggers and the possible removal of barriers there seems to be room for policy action. - A Theoretical Approach on How Lobbying Sustains Polarization in the United States, author Desiree DomacassĂŠ, supervisor Dr BenoĂŽt Crutzen. For the past three decades polarisation in the United States has followed a sharply increasing trend. The factors that support this tendency and the largely overlooked role of special interest groups in sustaining this trend are examined. A straightforward and theoretical model suggests that in the extreme case of complete polarisation there is a large jump to where centrist lobbies will no longer have an advantage when it comes to influencing politicians. This finding implies that the informative function of being lobbied in a bi-partisan fashion disappears and as a result all active lobbies including those holding more extreme views have an equal opportunity to influence policy. - Optimising Africa - How to optimize investments in the network of medical centres along the African Highways, author Harwin de Vries, supervisor Professor Albert Wagelmans. The NGO North Star Alliance fights the spread of the HIV virus in Africa by dispensaries placed along the busiest highways. To determine suitable locations for these mobile clinics is a complex problem. This study developed mathematical optimisation models to solve this problem. These models are, in cooperation with ORTEC Consultants, implemented in a decision support www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
system that is currently used by North Star.
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Interview
Erik Kole Assistant Professor of Financial Econometrics. Coordinator of the International Bachelor’s programme in Econometrics and Operations Research.
Last year we started the new International Bachelor’s programme in Econometrics and Operations Research. The first group of highly motivated students started in September 2012. We put great effort into selecting the students and, in the first year, we put special emphasis on instilling their knowledge and skills to enable the students to acquire university-level mathematical knowledge. The programme is demanding, and especially for the foreign students, the combination of adjusting to an academic environment and finding their way in a new country can be challenging. people who are involved
One of the main advantages
in getting the programme
of econometrics at ESE is
started. Co-workers from the
the practical focus we have
Department of Econometrics,
in educating our students.
the Marketing Department,
We have strong ties to the
the Programme Managers
business community. This is
and the Application &
reflected by the involvement
Admission Officers worked
of companies in the courses
together smoothly. This is
we provide. They encourage
where the “let’s get things
students to apply their
done” mentality of EUR and
knowledge to practical, real-
Fortunately, we generally
ESE reveals itself. We all
life cases. The fact that many
succeed in giving students a
worked together to reach a
Dutch econometricians work
warm welcome to Rotterdam
common goal.
at companies in and around
and ESE. A lot of the credit
Currently, the programme
Rotterdam gives us an edge
goes to our co-workers in the
is an English version of the
over other universities. Our
Admissions Office: they’ve
Dutch programme, which
goal for the future is to grow
made sure the students are
has been a conscious choice.
a bit bigger, without losing the
properly registered and well
We offer a well-designed
advantage of a small group.
prepared for their journey to
programme to educate
We will also continue to make
Rotterdam.
students to become top
sure the programme meets the
econometricians. By providing
needs of the labour market
Ties
this programme in English,
and we will keep working
As the programme
we give international
with other institutions so that
coordinator, I have been
students the opportunity to
students can gain the required
responsible for connecting
benefit from this experience.
international experience.
32
Interview
"The main advantages of studying econometrics at ESE are the smooth organisation and its strong ties to the business community."
33
Interview
"Enthusiasm is infectious and brings an organisation to a higher level. "
34
Associate Professor of Behavioural Economics.
When I started in 2006 the ESE did not offer any courses in Behavioural Economics. As Behavioural Economics was a growing group with a good research reputation, ESE offered us the opportunity to develop courses in Behavioural Economics. We started with an elective for third-year Bachelor’s students in 2009. This course attracted many more students than expected and students liked it. One year later we also developed a compulsory course called “Introduction to Behavioural Economics” for all second-year students of economics, which was also successful. In the academic year 2012-2013 we started with a separate Master’s Specialisation in Behavioural Economics. The specialisation consists of two streams of courses, one in behavioural economics and one in mainstream economics. specialisations at ESE. This
to like the structure of the
structure teaches students
specialisation as it also allows
to form a bridge between
them to further specialise
mainstream and behavioural
in mainstream economics.
economics.
In the second half of their specialisation in 2013. They
Enthusiasm
will take more courses and
A total of 43 students are
seminars and will write their
currently enrolled in this
theses under our supervision.
specialised course. Most of them are highly motivated.
Developing the courses and
All students take the
A small group of them are
the Master’s Specialisation
behavioural economics courses
establishing a students’
in Behavioural Economics
and the seminar in Applied
union. I feel the enthusiasm
has taken a lot of effort and
Behavioural Economics. For
of our students makes the
time for me. Yet, teaching
the mainstream economics
programme run smoothly,
enthusiastic students gives
courses and seminars, students
without me having to interfere
me plenty of positive energy,
have to choose one of three
a lot, which makes our lives as
which definitely makes the
tracks: Financial Economics,
lecturers very pleasant.
investment worthwhile!
Marketing, or Economics
So far I have the impression
As the first students will be
of Management and
that our students are satisfied
graduating soon, a crop of
Organisation. The mainstream
with our specialisation. They
new students will arrive in the
economics courses and
enjoy analysing economic
summer of 2013. I hope they
the seminar are from the
problems from a behavioural
will be as enthusiastic as our
corresponding other Master’s
angle. Moreover, they seem
first group!
35
Interview
Kirsten Rohde
Interview
Bas Jacobs Professor of Economics and Public Finance
This year we started the new Master’s programme in Policy Economics. It aims to educate students to become policymakers at ministries and economic research institutions. It focuses on students who do not strictly pursue scientific careers but who want to apply theoretical knowledge in practice. Students learn to understand and apply state-of-the-art academic knowledge to practical issues. For instance, how should one test the effects of policy interventions like decreasing class sizes? But also: how should policymakers solve the euro crisis? To meet these challenges, students must be familiar with the newest statistical and econometric techniques, understand complex economic models and theories, and be able to critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to a problem. applying academic research
economic policy.
to practical policy problems. The new Master’s programme The programme aims to
reflects my personal
revive the Dutch tradition
motivation as an academic
of educating students to
economist. Knowledge that
become excellent policy
is generated in universities
economists. This tradition
should have practical and
has almost become extinct
social relevance. EUR has
in the Netherlands because
traditionally had strong ties
universities are focusing on
with the city, the labour
This requires a strong
the international academic
market and its graduates. It
analytical mindset and a
environment. However,
has a strong motivation to do
clear and keen interest in
we still need good policy
applied work, as reflected by
policy issues. We want to
economists to solve the
the large number of applied
know what works, and what
practical problems in our
research groups. In this sense,
doesn’t.
country. All policy institutions
“The university that works”
in The Hague recognise this
is an apt slogan. There
Tradition
necessity and are welcoming
are currently 20 students
This Master’s programme
the new programme. Our
enrolled in the Master’s
builds on a tradition that
advisory board also consists
programme. My goal is to
started with Jan Tinbergen,
of economists who have
become the main supplier
who was not only an eminent
both earned their academic
of policy economists in the
academic but also very
credentials and have ample
Netherlands and, in the
socially engaged and adept at
experience in applied
future, perhaps even abroad.
36
Interview
"The new Master’s programme in Policy Economics is academically thorough, policy-relevant and socially engaged."
37
Interview
"According to Aristotle, pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. In my experience, this also holds for students."
38
Associate Professor of Microeconomics.
Organisational Economics is a rapidly growing field in economics. It studies the behaviour of people in organisations in relation to the organisation’s setup or design. This includes, for instance, the effects of pay-for-performance, feedback, and promotion contests, but also issues such as the interplay between organisations’ hierarchical setup, delegation of duties, and communication and the interaction between firms’ strategy, vision, and intrinsic motivation. I am very happy that ESE has invested in this area of economics in recent years, as we now have many people working on related topics. The combination of
I intend to actively follow
economic theory, empirical
our current students after
techniques and practical
they enter the labour market.
applications provides
They are well prepared, and
valuable insight into how
I am curious where their
firms should be run.
careers will take them.
Developments
Regarding research, we now
In this first year, about 30
have the opportunity to
students enrolled and my
establish ESE as a leading
impression is that we have
school in the field of
This also means we
attracted a very dedicated
organisational economics.
now have the expertise
group. So far, the students
Already, guests in our
to offer our students a
are enthusiastic about the
seminar series are positive
Master’s programme in
content and organisation
about the size and quality of
this growing field of study.
of the programme. They
our group. This kind of news
Hence, we launched the
have made suggestions
spreads quickly in academia:
new Master’s programme
for improvement as far
people now contact us to
‘Economics of Management
as certain details are
ask whether they can come
and Organisation’ in
concerned, but overall the
and give seminars at ESE. It
September 2012. One of the
programme is well-designed
shows we are on the right
interesting elements of this
and running smoothly.
track, and I look forward to all the new insights and
programme is that it draws on the expertise of both the
Next year, we are going to
findings our group will
Department of Economics
fine-tune the programme
develop in the coming years.
and the Department of
and hopefully attract some
Business Economics.
more students. Furthermore,
39
Interview
Josse Delfgaauw
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03
Research ESE aims to create, disseminate and apply academic knowledge related to economics, by thinking in scenarios in terms of achieving optimal solutions.
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#
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03 Research
#
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03.02 Rewarding Excellence
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03.03 Funding
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03.04 Integrity
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03.05 Research Programmes
55
03.06 Publications
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03.01 Research at ESE
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3
Research
Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) is home to leading academic expertise in the field of Economics. Furthermore, ESE provides an outstanding environment for its researchers and PhD candidates, conducive to the production of world-class research. In addition to our legal duty to offer post-graduate education and contract research, we add social relevance to a range of media appearances by explaining economic trends in layman’s terms. In this, as in all of our activities, ESE delivers top quality, which in turn has a positive impact on our core activities. ESE enjoys great acclaim in the Netherlands and abroad for its fundamental and applied academic research. The first part of this chapter focuses on the research at ESE, awards for excellence, funding, integrity and developments, while the second part gives an overview of our research programmes and publications.
03.01 - Research at ESE Research at ESE is divided into seven theme-based research programmes. The quality of ESE’s research is leveraged by its participation in the research schools Tinbergen Institute (TI) and Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM). Both schools are accredited by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science (KNAW) and enjoy great international esteem. Tinbergen Institute (TI) Tinbergen Institute celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012. It is a joint graduate school and research institution affiliated with the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and VU University Amsterdam (VU). The field of the research of TI is economics, including business economics and econometrics. TI offers two-year MPhil programmes track. TI’s graduate programme is highly valued. The Institute promotes fundamental and applied economic research based on the current eight themes of their research programmes. Each research theme covers the whole spectrum of economic analysis from highly theoretical to
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in Economics and Finance to excellent students as part of a five-year PhD
purely empirical research. Joint research is stimulated through the coherence of the programme. Several research fellows participate in more than one research group. The eight research programmes are Behavioural and Experimental Economics (BEE); Cooperative Behaviour, Strategic Interaction and Complex Systems (CSC); Econometrics and Operations Research (ECTOR); Finance (FIN); Labor, Health, Education and Development (LHED); Macroeconomics and International Economics (MIE); Organisations and Markets (OMS); Spatial, Transport and Environmental Economics (STEE). Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) is a collaboration of Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) and ESE. It focuses on management research. For excellent students, ERIM offers a highly valued doctoral programme. The focus of the ERIM two-year MPhil programme is on developing academic competencies and skills within a specific field of management. ERIM’s PhD programme is an advanced programme with an international focus, designed to train future researchers in one of five key fields of management: Business Processes, Logistics & Information Systems (LIS); Organisation (ORG); Marketing (MKT); Finance and Accounting (F&A); Strategy and Entrepreneurship (S&E). Besides the graduate programme, ERIM also offers an outstanding support programme for a range of research-related activities.
03.02 - Rewarding excellence Outstanding research of our academic staff is rewarded, not only through the annual ESE awards, but also by the high rankings of ESE economists in the list of the Top 40 Economists in the Netherlands and the variety of prestigious awards received by members of our staff. Top 40 Economists: EUR well represented in the top 5 The annual list of Top 40 Economists in the Netherlands was published in the ESB economic statistical reports, dated 14 December 2012. Professors www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
Michael McAleer and Philip Hans Franses of ESE occupy an honourable third and fourth place. A total of 12 Rotterdam economists, affiliated with either ESE, RSM or iBMG, are ranked in the list of Top 40 Economists. As a result, Erasmus University Rotterdam is again leading, and ranks as the number one institution of 2012!
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ERIM Award for Outstanding Performance by a Young Researcher to Aurélien Baillon and David Veenman Aurélien Baillon, Associate Professor of Behavioural Economics, and David Veenman, Associate Professor in the Department of Business Economics, received the 2012 Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Young Researcher. The jury said in its citation: “Aurélien Baillon managed to publish no fewer than four top articles on behavioural decision making in the previous two years, two of which appeared in the American Economic Review, one of the most prestigious journals in economics. This achievement is highly impressive for someone at this stage of his career, making Dr Baillon a well-deserved winner. David Veenman’s excellent track record in financial accounting is extremely rare in Western Europe. In a very short period of time - less than three years after finishing his PhD in Amsterdam - he managed to produce six top publications, three of which appeared in ERIM P* journals in accounting. Moreover, at his very young age, David recently joined the Editorial Board of European Accounting Review. ERIM can be proud to have winners like Dr Baillon and Dr Veenman on board.” ERIM Top Academic Article Award to Sebastian Gryglewicz Sebastian Gryglewicz, Assistant Professor in the Department of Business Economics, at ESE, received the 2012 ERIM Top Academic Article Award for his article ‘A theory of corporate financial decisions with liquidity and solvency concerns’, published in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2011. The jury said: “This paper studies the effects of the interaction between two sources of financial distress, illiquidity and insolvency, on a firm’s financing and default policy. It is the first work to develop a unifying dynamic model to uncover the effects of this interaction. In doing so, it makes three important contributions. First, it gives a rational explanation for dividend smoothing, perhaps the most characterising feature of a firm’s payout policy. In the model, dividend smoothing arises endogenously as a consequence of the optimal cash management policy, without any reference to managers’ or shareholders’ preferences. Second, the paper explains why constrained firms show positive cash-flow sensitivity. Third, it also provides a technical contribution, as it profitability and cash holdings, which correspond to the two dimensions of a firm’s financial policy.”
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develops a tractable continuous-time Markov model with two state variables,
Netspar Thesis Award to Bart Diris Dr Bart Diris, Assistant Professor of Econometrics, won a Netspar Thesis Award on 31 January 2012 for his dissertation ‘Strategic Asset Allocation. The Effect of Uncertainty on Portfolio Choice’. Netspar Thesis Awards are awarded annually to the authors of the best theses (Bachelor’s and Master’s) and the best dissertation. Each winner receives €3,000. Netspar, the Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement, was established in 2005. Netspar aims to link theory and practice in measures related to the pension system. Bart Diris was delighted and honoured to receive the Netspar Award, since this award validated the work he had accomplished in the past four years and was a confirmation of both the academic level and the social relevance of his dissertation. Best paper award to Arno Nuijten at European Academic Conference Arno Nuijten, who on Wednesday 29 August 2012 defended his PhD thesis entitled 'Deaf Effect for Risk Warnings - A causal examination applied to Information Systems Projects', won the 'Best Paper’ award at the 10th European Academic Conference on Internal Audit and Corporate Governance (in Verona, Italy, April 2012). Attendees at this conference on internal audit and corporate governance included researchers from Australia, China, Malaysia and 15 European countries. On behalf of the Erasmus School of Accounting & Assurance, Arno Nuijten and Gert van der Pijl published a paper on quality research to the Deaf Effect to Risk Warnings. At an earlier stage of his research, Arno Nuijten conducted several experiments to explain the Deaf Effect. The results were incorporated into the winning paper. EUR-Research Award to Martijn Burger At the Opening of the Academic Year 2012-2013 on Monday, 3 September, Rector Professor Henk Schmidt presented the EUR-Research Award to Assistant Professor Martijn Burger. Dr Burger received the award because he produced an imposing list of publications in a short period of time and has exceptional analytical, intellectual and social capabilities that make him the most eligible thesis supervisor at ESE. Most of his research focuses on foreign www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
direct investment, trade, and urban and regional development. He teaches the course ‘Introduction to Urban and Regional Economics‘ and seminar courses in ‘Multinationals and Business Networks‘ and ‘Advanced Regional and Transport Economics’. Since 2010, he is also member of the board of the Dutch Regional Science Association.
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ERIM Impact Award The team behind a EURopean-funded project Comparative Police Studies in EURopean Union, COMPOSITE received the 2012 ERIM Impact Award. The project is administered by a ESE Funding Team. COMPOSITE, which is devoted to change management within police forces across Europe, is a major collaborative project involving 15 consortium partners in 10 countries. More than 20 police forces across Europe are also involved. Erasmus University Rotterdam is the coordinator of the project. It has received nearly 2 million in funding from the EU for its own contribution to the project and another 5 million for the contribution of the other partners. COMPOSITE will be completed in 2014 and has been very successful since its start in 2010. The external jury members concluded: "The Research Team of Composite has chosen a highly relevant, though also very complicated research area. The team has designed a unique buy-in and dissemination model, involving both top-level policy makers and end users. The entire setup of the research appears - from the start - focused on achieving maximum impact within the research area. The design of the process in COMPOSITE is therefore a great example of academic research in action. Well done to the team for setting up a unique and creative, impressive and highly relevant approach!� The encouraging experience with COMPOSITE can, of course, be used in future large-scale research projects. ESE Awards ESE is proud of the high-quality research performance of its academic staff and rewards proven excellence with the following awards, presented in festive ceremonies at which many colleagues were present: • Top Talent Researchers and Top Senior Researchers. On 8 March 2012, the management team of ESE expressed its appreciation for its academic staff by rewarding the Top Talent Researchers, the Top Senior Researchers 2011. To promote the quality of research, ESE provides an annual incentive for both talented young researchers and top senior researchers. Professor Bauke Visser, Director of Tinbergen Institute, presented the award for Top Talent Researcher and a grant to Dr Victor Maas, Dr Dennis Huisman, Dr Top Senior Researchers were presented to Professors Philip Hans Franses, Dick van Dijk, Richard Paap, Peter Goos, Rommert Dekker, Han Bleichrodt, Stefan Stremersch, Otto Swank, Peter Wakker, Eddy van Doorslaer and Ingolf Dittmann.
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Kirsten Rohde, Dr Tom van Ourti and Dr Maarten Bosker. The awards for the
• Top Lecturer, Visibility Award and supervising 25 dissertations at ESE. At the same ceremony, Vice Dean Professor Ivo Arnold presented the Top Lecturer awards to Dr Kirsten Rohde, Dr Peran van Reeven, Dr Julian Emami Namini & Professor Giovanni Facchini, Dr Tim Salimans and Dr Ronald Huisman. Also, the 'Visibility Awards’ were presented for the third consecutive year, this year to three colleagues, who were together responsible for hundreds of media appearances in 2011. Dean Professor Philip Hans Franses presented these Awards to Professors Bas Jacobs, Ivo Arnold and Casper de Vries. The fact that both Professor Rommert Dekker and Professor Philip Hans Franses delivered their 25th PhD in 2012 was commemorated with a video clip. • ESE-Honorary Award. And for the first time in ESE history, an ESE-Honorary Award was presented. Professor Justus Veenman, Director of the Applied Economics department, presented this prestigious Award to our Dean Professor Philip Hans Franses because of his close involvement in ESE’s high-grade education and research. With his frequent publications, media appearances and other activities outside our School, such as lecturing at Suriname’s Anton de Kom University, he is an excellent representative of our staff and contributes extraordinarily to the good reputation of ESE. Furthermore, Philip Hans Franses is a member of the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts and Science, and in January he received the Honorary Doctorate in Econometrics of Chiang Mai University, one of the biggest
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universities in Thailand.
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• ESE Research Traineeship Programme. During a celebratory reception on 14 June 2012, the academic managers of ESE Research Traineeship Programme awarded certificates to seven students who successfully participated in the programme during the 2011/2012 academic year. Just like last year, the certificates were awarded to students from a range of cultural backgrounds. The students (or their parents), were born in the Netherlands Antilles, Russia, Turkey, Suriname, China, Morocco and Pakistan. The objective of ESE Research Traineeship programme is to give a select group of third-year Bachelor’s students from immigrant backgrounds the opportunity to acquaint themselves with academic research and build a career in academia. The trainees will support a member of the academic staff throughout the year and will also attend a series of seminars. In the seminars, academics talk about their own careers and the choices they made along the way. The seminars focus on developing essential research skills, and the Tinbergen Institute and ERIM provide information about the MPhil and PhD programmes. The Research Traineeship programme was established because around one-third of our students are from non-Dutch backgrounds and few students from this group go on to pursue MPhil or PhD degrees or apply for jobs in academia. This means that ESE is missing out on a huge pool of talent. The programme is sponsored by the Royal
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Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
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03.03 - Funding Acquiring external funding is becoming increasingly important to the status, growth and international recognition of ESE. For researchers, finding the right grant is challenging, complex and time-consuming. ESE aims to increase the success rate of external funding applications. Creating systematic awareness of grant opportunities, targeting potential applicants and assisting staff to prepare proposals for funding, are very important tools in achieving these goals. Successful grants obtained in 2012 In 2012 research grants continued to account for a growing proportion of the total research funding of ESE. The main successes this year were the Vici grant for Professor Ingolf Dittmann, the Veni grant for Dr David Veenman and the Marie Curie fellowships for Dr Hyoryung Nam and Dr Darjusch Tafreschi. The total amount in grants obtained in 2012 was just over €2.5 million. The VICI grant of €1.5 million from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) was awarded to Ingolf Dittmann, Professor of Finance at ESE, for his research proposal entitled ‘Inferring Preferences from Managerial Compensation Data’. The research will begin in mid-2013. Being awarded a VICI grant is a great accomplishment; Professor Dittmann is only the second ESE researcher to receive one. Dr David Veenman, Associate Professor in the department of Business Economics, is one of seven EUR researchers to have been awarded a VENI grant. Veenman has received the grant for his research proposal ‘Executive compensation and financial reporting’. The purpose of the research is to examine how changes in executive compensation packages affect the quality of companies’ external financial reporting. The grant is awarded by NWO to talented recent PhD graduates. Thanks to the €250,000 grant, Dr David Veenman will be able to continue his research for three more years. Level of research activity funded through grants www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
Income from grants has increased in recent years and in 2012 research activities funded through grants were almost three times higher overall than during the years up to 2009. Today funding from grants accounts for nearly 20% of the annual ESE research budget. Of course, to sustain and preferably even increase this level, the number of applications (and/or their success rate) must continue to grow. Fortunately, the numbers of applications for Marie Curie,
50
Venis, Vidis and ERC Starting Grants in 2012 were all higher than before. In 2012 a total of 21 applications were submitted – an absolute record! Our young researchers increasingly acknowledge the importance of obtaining additional funding in order to enhance successful research and are willing to invest significant efforts to obtain funds. Their collective proposals will therefore be a stimulus for ESE’s research landscape in the coming years, even when proposals are not rewarded. Course on Funding Proposal Writing In 2012, ESE’s Funding Team intensified its efforts to communicate the importance of funding and of acquiring the skills to secure funding. As part of ERIM Research Master’s curriculum, a 5 ECTS course on Funding Proposal Writing was offered twice in 2012, for subsequent cohorts. During the course, students are systematically trained to write a good research funding application. The best ones are subsequently submitted to NWO’s Research Talent competition, which funds PhD positions. For the second time even the promising Bachelor’s and Master’s students who participate in ESE’s Research Traineeship programme were introduced to funding, through a lighter version of what is offered to the research Master’s students. Accordingly, even the very beginning of careers of new research talent is now covered by ESE’s Funding Team. €400,000 research grant from the Swedish Söderberg Foundation It’s not every day that a team of young thinkers tries to launch a new field - especially one dealing with secrets of human behaviour that nearly everyone would like to understand. The Genoeconomics research group of ESE (comprising Professors Patrick Groenen and Roy Thurik, and Dr Philipp Koellinger), together with colleagues from Cornell University, New York University and Stock¬holm School of Economics, are investing in a research initiative aiming to discover genes that are associated with entrepreneurial behaviour in some 60,000 individuals. In short: 'Are there genes that can predict if someone will be a successful entrepreneur?' It is a powerful notion that our financial futures might be encoded in our DNA. something important by ignoring the genetics underlying factors such as risktaking, patience, and generosity. If we could grasp how our genes influenced such economic traits, they argue, the knowledge could be transformative. Paired to their enthusiasm, the research group takes great pains to talk about how far off and uncertain any potential applications are, and how difficult
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The genoeconomic researchers are convinced that economists are missing
the technical hurdles will be to clear. For this reason it is all the more fulfilling that the research group won a €400,000 research grant from the Swedish Söderberg foundation in 2012. This is already the third grant secured by the group in the past 12 months for their research on the molecular genetics of economic behaviours (genoeconomics). Netspar awards Benedict Dellaert and Bas Donkers with €250,000 grant. Benedict Dellaert and Bas Donkers, Marketing Professors at ESE, were awarded a €250,000 grant from Netspar. Netspar, the Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement, stimulates innovative academic research in all aspects of social studies, related to the pension system and aging. Among other things, the award is to support two PhD projects on research into the use of online, interactive tools to optimise communication and information exchange between pension funds and their members, in order to improve the pension decision process. This research project will be carried out in close cooperation with insurance company Achmea and asset management firm Robeco, both partners of Netspar.
03.04 - Integrity Erasmus University Rotterdam and ESE are mindful of the ethical norms and international standards established by the academic community and prioritise academic integrity. Alas, the academic world as a whole has recently been shocked by a number of violations of academic integrity, all the more reason to increase awareness of academic integrity among staff and students. Academics reflect on best practices regarding academic integrity in relation to data management NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) and VSNU (the association of Dutch universities) have highlighted academic integrity as an increasingly important institutional responsibility. At a symposium held www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
on the 21st of May, 2012, ERIM hosted a workshop where the preliminary recommendations of several working groups were discussed. These working groups identified a set of minimum and best practices relating to different phases of data management, each dealing with a specific research strategy (surveys, [laboratory] experiments, existing [public or collectible] data, case studies and quantitative modelling). Data management covers the
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entire process of collecting, processing, analysing, archiving, re-using (and providing access to) research data. One of the speakers at the symposium was Professor Kees Schuyt, the chairman of a committee of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The committee has investigated data management practices, and in mid-September 2012 it presented the report ‘Zorgvuldig en integer omgaan met onderzoeksgegevens’ (‘Handling Research Data with Care and Integrity’). The report’s main conclusion is that it is not necessary to establish more rules, but rather to strengthen a culture in which researchers embrace the content and necessity of the established rules. Universities should, as employers, respond more effectively to violations of academic integrity and research organisations should advocate maximum access to research data. Peer review and peer pressure during research help to increase awareness of careful and responsible research and to be considerate of academic integrity. Integrity should also receive more attention in the Bachelor’s and Master’s Programmes. Academic Integrity at EUR On 6 December, the Executive Board of Erasmus University Rotterdam adopted the new EUR Academic Integrity Complaints Procedure (EUR-KWI). This procedure will replace EUR guidelines regarding academic misconduct and will come into force as of 1 January 2013. This procedure is based on the VSNU model, but has been adjusted in accordance with a number of specific preferences within EUR. The procedure includes a confidential representative for academic integrity and a permanent chair of the Academic Integrity Committee. The first confidential representative under the new procedure is Professor Patrick Groenen of ESE. Besides, Professor Bauke Visser of ESE is a member of the Taskforce on Scientific Integrity (TSI), an Erasmus study group with subcommittees including 'PhD and faculty training format' and 'PhD process and output'. TSI advises on (practical) issues for researchers to take into account, like data management (storage, access, archiving) and the oath of integrity researchers are asked to take. In addition, TSI promotes playing the Dilemma game in each school. This game people to find solutions to various common integrity issues. Moreover, participants are offered the opportunity to formulate dilemmas based on their own experiences, to discuss on an informal basis how their own school deals with the values set out in the integrity code, and to explain the responsibilities of all parties involved.
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was created by EUR to facilitate discussion of dilemmas and to encourage
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03.05 - Research Programmes The research programmes of ESE are groups of researchers, focusing their research on related projects, addressing various themes. Through its programmes, ESE allocates research time and funds to fields that are considered of key importance of the academic world as well as society. ESE focuses on the seven economic programmes that have their research embedded within Tinbergen Institute and/or ERIM and will be elaborated in the second part of this chapter. Econometrics: efficient forecasting and improved decision making The aim of this programme is to provide econometric tools that lead to efficient forecasting of the level and risk of economic activities in macroeconomics and finance and lead to improvements in individual economic decision making in marketing and finance. The focus is on three themes: (1) Development of dynamic econometric models with nonlinearities in the model specification and plausible restrictions in the parameter space. (2) Advanced computational techniques that can handle such nonlinearities and restrictions in an efficient and reliable way. (3) Discrete choice analysis at an individual level. The motivation to focus on these three themes follows from changes that occurred over the past thirty years, as there are the deregulation of many economic systems (in Eastern Europe in particular and the technological advancement in financial products, systems and services. As a consequence of these two changes, more shocks to economic processes and more nontrivial dynamic behaviour in important economic variables occur. For instance, the processing of information moving at a much greater speed than in the past has had a substantial effect on the level of volatility of financial processes. The third important change is the enormous increase in the availability of large data sets: high-frequency data in the financial sector and scanner data in the marketing sector. Alongside this development, the ‘Computational Revolution’ took place in several fields of academic activity, including psychology, physics, chemistry and biology. Nonlinear, partially increasingly important in economics. In the present programme, a major research topic is the development of simulation-based inferential techniques that are used in a Bayesian and/or probability analysis of econometric models in macroeconomics, finance and marketing.
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observed processes where simulation techniques are used are also becoming
Finance and accounting: functioning of financial markets and cooperation The research programme 'Finance and Accounting' comprises researchers from both the finance and accounting groups. The programme aims to enhance our understanding of the functioning of financial markets, financial institutions and intermediaries, as well as the financial decision making of businesses, managers and market players. The programme aims to make high-quality academic contributions in four key areas: International Finance, Corporate Finance, Corporate Governance, and Financial Accounting, and disseminate our knowledge locally and internationally. The mission of the research program is to be one of the leading finance and accounting programmes in Europe. The programme conducts research in finance and accounting with an empirical, modelling orientation, based on various state-of-the-art or handcollected datasets and econometric techniques, addresses a selective number of important substantive areas, and encourages research that is relevant for a broad audience in the finance profession. The programme can be split into different fields. The field of International Finance focuses on the proper functioning of international financial markets and its relationship with multinational firms and financial institutions. The field of Corporate Finance examines how firms are financed at various stages during their lifecycle as well as changing market conditions. Corporate Governance addresses the question of how the control rights within a firm should be allocated among the market players involved in order to attract (international) financing and optimise investors’ (and other stakeholders’) return on investment; and Financial Accounting investigates why, how and when businesses provide information, what incentives they have to disclose this information, how investors use this information efficiently, and the impact of accounting choices. Health and Behaviour: economic behaviour with respect to health and health care This research programme connects the research themes of the Behavioural and the Health Economics groups of the Department of Applied Economics. Overlap is natural because health is one of the main fields of application of www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
the Behavioural group and the study of economic behaviour with respect to health and health care is one of the central themes of the Health group. The current research themes of Health Economics can be divided into research questions relating to the (1) Economics of Health and (2) Economics of Health Care. Theme (1) Economics of health, relates to economic decisions affecting health in relation to labour force participation or in relation to occupation
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and lifestyles. Questions focus on issues such as retirement and disability, the role of occupation in the effect of education on health, or the role of healthy/unhealthy lifestyles in the relationship between health and income or wealth. Research themes addressed under theme (2) Economics of Health Care, include the measurement, explanation and interaction between health and income inequality, the demand for medical and long term care, health measurement and bias correction, sustainable health insurance in low income settings and the effects of competition on efficiency of health care delivery. The research of the Behavioural Economics Group focuses on two broad themes: (1) Decision under Risk and Uncertainty and (2) Intertemporal Choice. Theme (1) focuses primarily on prospect theory, currently the most important descriptive theory of decision under risk and uncertainty. The focus of theme (2) is primarily on the measurement of hyperbolic discounting models. These models have become very popular in economics but little evidence exists which of these models fits the empirical data. The Behavioural Economics Group has developed methods to measure the different models and has proposed a new class of intertemporal models that, based on preliminary findings, provides the best fit. International Economics: economic policies in a global environment International Economics studies the interaction of economic agents across geopolitical borders. The growing integration of goods and factor markets has made the analysis of the behaviour of consumers, businesses and governments in a global environment of paramount importance to our everyday life. The goal of the research group is to contribute to broadening knowledge in this area, looking both at normative and positive questions. A special focus is the study of setting economic policies in a global environment. Within the two, related, main themes International Trade and Factor Mobility and Economic Policy, the focus of research activities of this programme can be divided into four sub-themes: (1) International Trade, where both the firm selection process and the welfare effects of trade are analysed when businesses differ in their input mix decision. A second stream of research in this area focuses on the process of trade policy formation, with a particular emphasis on of Fast Track authority and its impact on trade negotiations, and the study of the effects of politicians’ time horizon on support for trade deregulation. In sub-theme (2), International Migration, research focuses on the effects of immigration on destination countries, as well as on the drivers of individual preferences towards immigration, and the process whereby those preferences
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the United States of America. Recent papers include one of the first analyses
are aggregated into migration policy outcomes. Sub-theme (3) Development Economics focuses on recent trends in the Chinese economy and on the impact that growth in China has had on the rest of the world. A second important set of questions which has been tackled involves the role of foreign aid to developing countries, and, in particular, a comparison of NGO aid and governmental aid. And in sub-theme (4) Economic Policy, the interaction between globalisation and domestic policy making is researched as well as the economics of optimal taxation and the impact of public policies on education. Management Science: being at the forefront of logistic management decisions This research programme encompasses operations research, quantitative logistics and computer science methods and applications in economics. The aim of the research group is to be in the vanguard of trends in transportation, logistics and supply-chain management in interaction with decision support systems based on information and communication technology, and to make major contributions to both management science and management practice. The programme has been quite successful both in terms of international research publications and in terms of contributions to solving practically relevant problems and is organised around four themes. Supply chain optimisation and planning addresses optimisation, coordination and planning issues in supply chains. The research goal of Transportation management is to improve the performance of passenger and cargo transportation systems. In the theme Health care management models, methods are developed to increase efficiency in health care institutions and to improve the quality of care. And Intelligent systems for decision support studies the application of information and communications technologies as well as advanced computational methods for improving decision making in business economic domains. Managerial Economics: strategic decisions and the design of firms This programme aims to bring together researchers working at the academic frontier of two interconnected fields: the Economics of Organisation and the Economics of Strategy. These fields are considered to be interrelated for two important reasons. From a substantive point of view, strategic decisions of www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
firms may depend crucially on the way they are organised internally. Vice versa, strategic decisions of firms may have an impact upon organisational design issues. From a more technical point of view, both areas (certainly in their theoretical orientation) employ very similar microeconomic techniques. Regardless of the type of organisation, Economics of Organisations studies issues around two central themes: firstly, how does an organisation ensure it
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arrives at a sound decision on what to do? This constitutes the organisation of the decision-making process. Secondly, once it is known what should be done, how should it be carried out? This relates to themes like incentives, organisational culture, the selection of personnel, governance, the assignment of property rights, etc. A central objective of research in this area is to understand the influence of the decision-making process upon the quality of the decision reached. Economics of Strategy can be subdivided into several themes as the investment decisions that firms make in order to create and maintain a competitive advantage. Another theme focuses on entrepreneurship at different levels of aggregation. A third theme is to research the relationship between businesses and the environment. Performance at the regional level is linked to the industrial structure, labour mobility across regions and sectors and companies’ characteristics in terms of diversification and innovation. Marketing: using advanced quantitative models to answer marketing questions The mission of the research programme in marketing is to be one of the top marketing programmes in Europe. It conducts research in marketing with a focus on quantitative modelling and addresses a selective number of important substantive areas. Thus, research activities follow along three major themes: Marketing of Innovations, Decision-Making in Marketing, and Marketing Models and publications are targeted at top journals in the field. The theme of Marketing of Innovations relates to marketing problems faced by innovations in areas such as technology and life sciences. Underlying disciplines are technology, economics, health economics, statistics and econometrics. The theme Decision-Making in Marketing includes research on Behavioural Decision Making, Sales Person Decision Making, and Online Marketing Decision Models. Research in this area draws on economics, econometrics, neurology and psychology to model individuals’ decision making. Researchers in the Marketing Models programme work closely with their counterparts at the Econometric Institute. The typical research questions in marketing and the typical properties of marketing data nowadays require development or implementation of these advanced models, ranging from aggregate level models of sales or market shares to disaggregate level models of individual behaviour.
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the use of advanced econometric models. This research theme concerns the
03.06 - Publications For ESE, research and its outcome through publications are a natural part of our researchers’ work. Each year a wealth of publications is produced. Next to academic and professional articles, research results are also published in books, book chapters, conference proceedings, working papers, magazines and many other types of publications. The selection below shows some examples of top publications of academic articles, in random order. - Martijn Burger & Evert Meijers (2012), ‘Form follows function? Linking morphological and functional polycentricity’, Urban Studies, 49(5), 1127-1149. - Martijn de Jong, Rik Pieters, & Stefan Stremersch (2012) ‘Analysis of Sensitive Questions Across Cultures: An Application of Multigroup Item Randomized Response Theory to Sexual Attitudes and Behavior’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(3), 543-564. - Benedict Dellaert, Bas Donkers & Arthur van Soest (2012) ‘Complexity Effects in Choice Experiment-Based Models’. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(3), 424-434. - Martijn van den Assem, Guido Baltussen, Peter Wakker et al.(2012). Random Incentive Systems in a Dynamic Choice Experiment. Experimental Economics, 15(3), 418-443. - David Veenman (2012), ‘Disclosures of Insider Purchases and the Valuation Implications of Past Earnings Signals.’ The Accounting Review, 87(1), 313-342 - Yuri Peers, Dennis Fok and Philip Hans Franses (2012), ‘Modeling Seasonality in New Product Diffusion’. Marketing Science, vol. 31(2), pages 351-364. - Tim Salimans (2012) ‘Variable Selection and Functional Form Uncertainty in Cross-Country Growth Regressions’. Journal of Econometrics, 2012 171(2) Pages: 267-280. - Maarten Bosker et al. ( 2012) ‘From Baghdad to London: unravelling urban development in Europe and the Arab world 800-1800’, Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming. - Jan Stoop et al. (2012) ‘From the lab to the field: Cooperation among fishermen.’ The Journal of Political Economy 120 pp. 1027-1056. - Dinand Webbink et al. (2012): ‘The effect of childhood conduct disorder on www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
human capital’ Health Economics, 2012, 8: 928-945. - Denny van Dolder, Martijn van den Assem & Richard Thaler (2012). ‘Split or Steal? Cooperative Behavior When Stakes Are Large’. Management Science, 58: 2-20. - Wilco van den Heuvel, Albert Wagelmans et al. (2012) ‘Integrated market selection and production planning: complexity and solution approaches’. Mathematical Programming, 134(2), 395-424.
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Interview
"Rotterdam is now the place to be in Europe for health economics. The challenge for the years to come is to maintain that leading position and keep the momentum."
62
Interview
Eddy van Doorslaer Professor of Health Economics Director of the Health Economics Group
I studied Applied Economics at Antwerp University in Belgium, Health Economics at the University of York in the UK, and obtained my PhD at the University of Maastricht in 1987. In the past year, I appreciated receiving recognition for my past research efforts. Not only was I honoured with the ESE Top Senior Researcher award for the fifth year in a row, I also ranked 9 in the list of the top health economists worldwide over the last four decades, and the only non-US-based scholar in the top 10. Erasmus University was ranked the second-highest European institution (11th in total). It is beyond any doubt that I owe much of the credit for this achievement to Erasmus University Rotterdam, which has always offered me an outstanding research environment, with ample opportunities and incentives to collaborate closely with scholars from all over the world. for Applied Economics
working in different divisions
and Impact Evaluation of
of the university - in
Business Strategy and Public
Economics, Health Policy and
Policy.
Management and at Erasmus Medical Center. One risk is
Challenges
that each of these separate
I have never regretted
groups becomes so large
joining ESE. It has allowed
that the advantage of critical
me to create an excellent
mass gets lost. With my joint
group of dedicated young
appointment, I see it as one
researchers and teachers
of my duties to prevent that
Apart from running its own
in health economics that
from happening. Cross-
Master’s programme, the
are the envy of colleagues
departmental interaction
Health Economics group
around the world. Rotterdam
through joint seminars,
also plays a key role in
is now the hottest place in
teaching and research
the teaching of research
Europe for health economics.
projects should help.
methods, in particular
The challenge for the years
the application of micro-
to come is to maintain that
econometric methods, in a
leading position and keep
number of Bachelor’s and
the momentum. One critical
Master’s courses. These
factor there will be to foster
include the Research Project,
continued collaboration
Quantitative Methods
between health economists
63
Interview
Jan Stoop Post-doctoral researcher in the Behavioural Economics group of the Department of Applied Economics.
The year 2012 was an amazing year for me in two aspects. One, our Behavioural Economics group started a new Master’s specialisation. My role in this programme is to offer a new course, Experimental Economics. In economics, perhaps more so than in other social sciences, experiments are designed around certain rules. Students are taught those rules and why they are important. I am grateful to teach it, because Rotterdam is the only place where this is possible. Secondly, 2012 was the year of my first publication: a field experiment that measures prosocial behaviour in a group setting. For me, my first publication was extra exciting: the article has appeared in the welknown Journal of Political Economy. Lab experiments
policymakers, these results
Lab subjects may behave
are important. The lab
‘too’ socially. In the JPE
predicts that environmental
publication, we conduct an
problems can be overcome
experiment where subjects
without government. Our
(recreational fishermen)
field study questions this
can sacrifice earnings to
advice. The good news is
benefit their group members.
that if external validity
This ‘Public Goods’ game
breaks down, the lab is the
is a metaphor for many
right place to set things
environmental problems the
straight. It is easy to conduct
What makes the publication
world faces. In the lab, unlike
a real activity in the lab.
extra special is that only four
standard economic theory,
The new ESE lab therefore
experiments were published
fishermen are willing to incur comes at the right time. I
in this journal over the past
these costs. Next, we place
can replicate the results of
eleven years. My research is
the fishermen in a similar
my field experiments. I can’t
about the external validity
fishing task ‘in the real
wait for it to open its doors.
of lab experiments: how
world’ (with real fish and
predictive are results from
bait). As economic theory
the lab for behaviour in the
predicts the fishermen fish
‘real world’. The issue of
at full force... The difference
external validity is especially
is caused by the activities:
interesting when it comes
in the lab, fishermen fill in
to measuring pro-social
a form. In the field, they
behaviour.
engage in a real activity. For
64
Interview
"The external validity of lab experiments is an ongoing fundamental discussion. The new ESE Econlab will be an outstanding opportunity to answer some of our questions on this matter." 65
Interview
"We aim to make International Economics one of ESE’s most successful research groups."
66
Associate Professor in the Department of Economics.
Research-wise 2012 was an important year for me. Three of my papers were published in top journals. I feel one of them stands out. After working on it for more than five years, my co-authors and I published our work on historical city development in the Review of Economics and Statistics. Our paper sheds new light on the old debate concerning the economic stagnation of the Islamic world, and the surprising economic rise of Europe over the course of the 2nd millennium AD. Why did Europe overtake the Islamic World in terms of prosperity? Was it trade, geography, war, religion, or institutional development? We find that two things were particularly crucial. Baghdad, the mighty
an important aim for next
Abbasid capital, to become
year is to attract new faculty
the centre of the world in
that will further strengthen
1800.
our group in terms of both research output and national
Future growth
and international visibility.
Currently our International Economics group is quite
Personally, I also hope
small, consisting of me,
to make good progress
Julian Emami Namini,
on several new research
Laura Hering and Jean-
projects that I have started
First, the different
Marie Viaene. Yet we are
with different co-authors.
relationship between the
ambitious, and despite our
One of them aims to show
economy and the state
size, are already considered
that (social) network
(forms of democracy in
one of the successful groups
theory and trade theory are
Europe vs. empire in the
in International Economics
closely linked, so that one
Islamic World), and secondly,
in the Netherlands.
can introduce interesting
the long-term implications
Moreover, we teach one of
concepts from network
of the chosen dominant
the best-attended Master’s
theory into the realm of
mode of transport (ships
programmes at ESE and are
international trade. Another
in Europe vs. camels in the
able to attract internationally aims to quantify the (general
Islamic World). Together,
renowned speakers to our
equilibrium) effect of the
they provide an explanation
seminars. Also, we are
rapid construction of China’s
for the surprising fact that
ourselves regularly invited
national highway network
a small, ninth-century
to present our research at
on the regional distribution
English backwater called
well-known universities all
of wages, people and firms
London managed to surpass
over Europe. Nevertheless,
within the country.
67
Interview
Maarten Bosker
Interview
Stefan Stremersch
Benedict Dellaert
Desiderius Erasmus Distinguished Chair
Professor of Marketing
of Economics and Professor of Marketing
Co-director of the Erasmus Center for
Scientific Director of the Erasmus Center
Marketing and Innovation
for Marketing and Innovation
Stefan Stremersch has held visiting positions at Emory and Duke and won awards, such as the Journal of Marketing Best Paper Award (2002), the J.C. Ruigrok Prize and the Rajan Varadarajan Early Career Award (2008). He focusses on the study of commercialisation of innovations, predominantly in ICT and Life Sciences. Benedict Dellaert is a research theme coordinator at Netspar, and an external affiliate of CenSoC at UTS, Sydney. His research and education work focusses on consumer decision-making and consumer-firm interaction in application areas such as e-commerce, healthcare, and financial services. From 2001 to 2012, we built
ECMI
School, a leading global
the ESE Marketing Group
One of our key initiatives to
business school (Navarra,
from nowhere to a top 3
enable such achievement is
Spain). In 2014, ECMI,
marketing science group in
the founding, at the start of
the American Marketing
Europe. We achieved this
2012, of the Erasmus Centre
Association (AMA) and the
by consistently focusing on
for Marketing of Innovation
European Marketing Academy
high-quality research and
(ECMI). ECMI develops
(EMAC) will organise the first
publishing in top journals,
scholarly knowledge in
invitational Symposium on
almost exclusively. Our work
collaboration with international
Marketing and Innovation at
takes a rigorous quantitative
institutions (MIT, University
ESE, which will be attended
approach to marketing that
of Ghent) and companies
by select C-level industry
is rooted in economics. The
(Nielsen, GM) on analytical
practitioners and academic
culture we want to pursue
tools and concepts that can
thought leaders.
is one of team-based,
improve innovation success.
In 2012, we successfully
high-impact, big bets in
The centre is rapidly becoming
applied for a two-million-euro
research programmes rather
a global hub of international
Research Excellence grant,
than individual, incremental
researchers interested in
which we have used to further
advances in marketing
marketing and innovation.
expand our research faculty base between 2013 and 2017.
science. For 2013-2022, we aim to become the best
ECMI has recently entered
We are proud that EUR and
marketing science group in
partnerships with the
ESE have recognised our team
Europe and be among the
University of Ghent, one of
as a centre of excellence for
top 5 marketing science
Belgium's leading Economics
top academic research that
departments in the world.
schools, and IESE Business
achieves global visibility.
68
Interview
"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars."
69
Interview
"The various faculties all have their own areas of expertise, complementing each other. This way Tinbergen Institute provides a graduate programme none of the individual faculties could have offered by itself." 70
General Director of Tinbergen Institute.
Tinbergen Institute (TI) was founded over 25 years ago through a partnership between Erasmus University Rotterdam, the University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam. TI’s main goal has always been to have Fellows provide graduate training at a very high level in economics, econometrics and finance. Fellow requirements have always been based on publications and citations in international peer-reviewed journals. We are also quite rigorous in selecting our students. One of the main duties of the Director of Graduate Studies is to select from among the hundreds of applicants to the M.Phil. programme those candidates who are most promising. At this moment, TI is also starting to get involved in the selection of four-year (AIO) positions at the ESE. exchange ideas and maybe
Future
even get together to write a
The biggest changes I foresee
paper.
for the future is the way the Institute is going to be
One of the best things about
funded. We need to work
my job is that I get to know
together with the faculties
a lot of researchers who are
to procure more external
very interested in who else
funding. I think we will
is working in their field of
rely more on funding from
expertise. It is very satisfying
- especially - the European
to help these young people
Commission in the future.
Besides being a graduate
to connect to others who
TI has two main selling points
school TI is also a research
can help them realise their
for accessing these European
institution. It is TI’s mission
potential. Over the past
funds. First, our ability to
to improve the visibility
decades, thanks to the
connect researchers who
and quality of research
continuous (financial) support
are the best in their fields.
and researchers, by being
of the ESE and the other two
And secondly by serving
an effective networking
faculties, TI has been able to
as a hub for cooperation
organisation. This way,
act as an organisational hub
between different academic
researchers can get to know
and become the institute it
institutions.
each other and learn who is
is today. The support of the
performing research in what
Deans of the three faculties,
area. It provides opportunities
in particular, has been
for young researchers to
priceless in this development.
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Interview
Bauke Visser
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04
#
Knowledge Valorisation
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Erasmus School of Economics aims to make an impact on society, governments and the private sector by making knowledge suitable and available for economic and social use and by giving advice and opinions on contemporary issues of economic concern.
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04 Knowledge Valorisation
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04.01 Building partnerships
04.02 The intrinsic bond between academia, society and the philanthropy sector 80
04.03 Contributions to political and public debate
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04.04 Nurturing lifelong relationships with our alumni
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04.05 Erasmus School of Economics: a dynamic part of Rotterdam
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4
Knowledge Valorisation
Knowledge valorisation can be defined as the process of creating value from knowledge, by making it suitable and/or available for economic and social use and by adapting it for conversion into competitive products, services, processes and new business. The impact of higher education and research on society and the interchange between science and everyday life, and, vice versa, is a well-established and essential aspect of universities, since no university or school would have been established without considerations of social benefits. The focus on the social value of education and research has increased in the past decade. As a result, the concept of ‘knowledge valorisation’ was introduced and enshrined in the law as a core function of universities. In addition to offering higher education and conducting fundamental research, ESE aims to engage actively with the public, the business world, the government and the third sector (e.g. charities). Valorisation activities focus on making tangible contributions to society, such as support of and advice to governments and businesses and by translating newly obtained knowledge and innovative research results into applications with economic and/or social benefits. In 2012, ESE continued with its commitment to promote and support the core missions in teaching and research by building partnerships with the business community, government, society and alumni. Knowledge valorisation is therefore a natural part of ESE’s work.
04.01 - Building partnerships ESE continues to improve the quality of its education and research. Students are provided with enriching and challenging educational experiences, including the benefits that derive from the School’s strong links with business variety of regional networks and alliances, vital to research, data collection, and the broadening of our students’ experiences.
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and government. Our Rotterdam roots give us a strong relationship with a
ESE and Ernst & Young join forces in accountancy research On Friday 29 June 2012, Ernst & Young and ESE announced that they will be undertaking joint research on external reporting and corporate governance. This collaboration is part of Ernst & Young Academic Network. Other leading European universities participating in the network are: HEC (Paris), Bocconi (Milan), Cass Business School (London) and Mannheim University (Germany). This broader, international scope brings together the research expertise of ESE with the knowledge and experience of Ernst & Young, and helps the business world tackle future challenges in financial accounting and corporate governance. The research focuses on current challenges facing the business world, as well as on training and developing the next generation of accounting professionals and business leaders. In consultation with its clients, Ernst & Young identified those challenges and then, in conjunction with Erasmus School of Economics, determined which of them can best be addressed together by their staff and business professionals. Jaap Hetebrij RA from Ernst & Young and Professor Philip Hans Franses of ESE both welcomed this collaboration since good cooperation between the business and academic world is important to all and fits in with ESE’s strategy of sharing its knowledge and research expertise in order to make a contribution to society. At the same time, interaction with the business world enriches research and helps to create high-quality knowledge. The Institute for Taxation and Economics (FEI BV) starts collaboration with SIRET The Scientific Institute for Research on Economics of Taxation (SIRET) is a collaboration of ESE’s Institute for Taxation and Economics (FEI BV) and the department of Fiscal Economics of the University of Amsterdam plus the Fiscal Economic Institute Tilburg (FEIT) of Tilburg University. SIRET aims to promote Dutch fiscal economic research and encourage academic publications. By organising conferences and seminars, disciplines such as Economics, Public Finance, Business Economics and Tax Law are related. SIRET focuses on programmes such as fiscal and commercial profit determination, company sequences, financing and provisions, including a provision for care. www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
Professor Peter Kavelaars of ESE is one of SIRET’s initiators. On 28 September 2012, SIRET officially launched its first conference, ‘Dialogue Between Economists and Tax Experts’. Items on the agenda included the Dutch tax treatment of home ownership and mortgage and the introduction of a Dutch flat tax and bank tax. Professor Bas Jacobs, Professor Leo Stevens, Dr Ruud van den Dool and Professor Peter Kavelaars represented ESE.
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Glencore Master Class Commodity Trading brings knowledge together After the success of the Glencore Trading day in 2011, ESE and Glencore Grain NV decided in 2012 to shift into higher gear and organise the first Glencore Commodity Trading Master Class. After a highly competitive selection, 27 students immersed themselves into the fascinating world of commodity trading at Glencore's office in the centre of Rotterdam. The Master Class brought knowledge together from academia and practice; the interaction between speakers from different backgrounds, as well as students, ensured new perspectives and was a common staple of the master class. We were especially delighted to include Professor Jan Peter Balkenende, former prime minister of the Netherlands, and Chris Mahoney, CEO of Glencore Grain, in a session on international trade. In a total of 7 meetings, chaired by Dr Philippe Versijp of ESE’s Department of Business Economics, the participants attended a multidisciplinary programme incorporating commodity trading, legal aspects, shipping, international trade and risk management. This culminated in a final case, simulating a real tender for grain, incorporating all aspects of the business. ESE is proud to be able to join forces with Glencore Grain, a company that offers our students unique insights in a business area that is both highly interesting and demanding. We intend to follow-up with subsequent editions of the Master Class. Master Class Actuarial Sciences 2012-2013 gets students acquainted with complexity For the fourth year the Econometric Institute and Allianz Nederland Group NV organised the Master Class in Actuarial Sciences. The Master Class presented the most important aspects of the actuarial profession, bringing together theory and practice. Actuaries are experts in analysing the past, modelling the future, assessing the risk involved by using mathematical and statistical models, and communicating what the results mean in financial terms. Through this Master Class the Econometrics Institute offered students a glimpse into the insurance business. For Allianz, interaction with the youngest generation of talent is of great importance. Allianz has broad experience in the insurance new ideas and insights to stay ahead of the competition. This can be achieved by, among other things, discussions with young talent from the university that is interested in their profession. Students who attended the Master Class became acquainted with the complexity of the financial world and were be able to understand it, and to form their own opinions about financial matters.
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business and they are both willing to share their knowledge and search for
They received a certificate from ESE. Furthermore, a few students who excelled during the course were offered a personal development review facilitated by the Allianz. For some students, the Master Class also made it possible to start an internship, a small project, or to write a complete Master’s thesis at Allianz. PwC Honours Master’s road to strong competitive position after graduation The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Honours Master’s in Accounting, Auditing and Control, the result of the proven partnership between ESE and PwC, gives a select group of students a strong competitive position after graduation. This Honours Master’s programme is the perfect mix of tailor-made education combined with internships and international work experience. It offers a unique combination of theory and practice in accounting, auditing and control. The added strong basis in finance is an extra feature to further enhance students’ career opportunities. A significant component of the programme is interaction with the business community through guest speakers, projects with practitioners, business games, events and internship opportunities. Through its involvement in this special Master’s programme, PwC is investing in the financial and economic knowledge of future colleagues and, by extension, in the future of the accountancy profession. Supporting and developing the profession of SME accountants In March 2012 NEMACC, the expertise centre for accountants employed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), officially started this partnership between Erasmus School of Accounting & Assurance and the Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants (NBA). It aims to support and position the social significance of SME accountants. Within NEMACC, ESAA and NBA work together to generate new knowledge and insights of practical significance to the functioning of SME audits. NEMACC is funded from the assets of the NOvAA (one of the two professional organisations for accountants in the Netherlands that are part of the NBA). NEMACC’s activities can be divided into three groups: a Research and Education group, a Think Tank and a Documentation Centre. Each of these three groups has its own merits and expertise. The Research and Education group researches regulatory pressure www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
among accountants by investigating current perceived bottlenecks. The Think Tank aims to obtain insights into the crucial business values of SMEs and the Documentation Centre focuses on the opportunities and pitfalls of Cloud Computing for SMEs. The activities of NEMACC started in September 2012 and the first outputs are expected in spring 2013.
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Erasmus SmartPort Rotterdam: Centre of excellence for sea ports This centre of excellence for maritime and port-related research and education was established in 2009, building on strong relationships between EUR, the Port of Rotterdam, and many of the companies linked to it as well as Deltalinqs and the City of Rotterdam. The main goal of Erasmus SmartPort Rotterdam is to develop new methods to combine the high level of academic quality with practical relevance and project research. EUR is represented by ESE, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus School of Law and the Faculty of Social Sciences and a highly qualified network will be built in close cooperation with relevant stakeholders from the academic and business worlds. In 2012 many seminars and meetings renewed the already strong relations. Examples are a breakfast meeting with Professor Rommert Dekker, held on 21 March 2012, on improving the logistics of and reducing the costs of spare parts. And in April and October 2012, senior researcher and business director of ESE’s RHV BV, Dr Michiel Nijdam, presented some of the backgrounds behind growth in international trade and container volumes and on the development and future of the ports in Europe. The Power of Alignment: Dare to Turn Good Performance into Great Performance As a spin-off company of EUR, S-ray Diagnostics specialises in improving strategic alignment and enhancing organisational performance. Dr Marco de Haas, Professor Patrick Groenen of ESE and Professor Daan van Knippenberg of RSM developed innovative and state-of-the-science tooling for this very purpose. The S-ray Alignment Scan enables top executive teams to draft an in-depth and crystal-clear diagnostic picture of the locus, degree and content of strategic alignment throughout the organisation. Which business units, departments and teams are aligned and which ones are not? What is the alignment about and is it connected to the alignment of the top executive team? It turns out that strategic misalignment is the rule rather than the exception. The S-ray Solution Box enables top executive teams to effectively act upon misalignment by revealing its causes. Which proven alignment drivers are underdeveloped in what sections of the organisation and require Diagnostics shares its knowledge and experience by means of the “The Power of Alignment” annual seminar series, which was successfully organised for the first time in 2012. S-ray Diagnostics works for companies like Unilever, Philips, CRH Landscaping Europe, FloraHolland, Eneco and ProRail.
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immediate improvement in order to resolve strategic misalignment? S-ray
04.02 - The intrinsic knowledge bond between academia, society and the philanthropy sector By organising conferences and meetings, ESE links its academic expertise to that of policymakers, professionals, representatives from the business sector, students, media and other interested parties. Our annual series of dynamic meetings focus on quality, substance and creating transfer between academia and society. Our conferences are a mix of lectures, interactive discussions and debates on fascinating papers and subjects. Controlling increases Marketing and controlling: eMARC On Tuesday, 29 May, ESE marketing and accounting researchers together with the RSM accounting group hosted a lunch to informally launch a new initiative, called eMARC, Erasmus Marketing and Accounting Research Center. With the increased role of controlling in marketing spending decisions and the increased communication task of accountants and controllers, the center aims to stimulate interdisciplinary research by teams composed of both disciplines. The Center’s co-directors, Professor Maarten Pronk (ESE Accounting), Professor Erik Roelofsen (RSM Accounting) and Professor Stefan Stremersch (ESE Marketing) funded a research project conceived on the spot through the ‘speed-dating’ methodology of Professor Martijn de Jong, Professor Victor Maas, Dr Paulo Perego and Nel Hofstra MSc with seed funding of €3,000. The new project in eMARC’s research line wants to adopt Eyetracking, a method often used in advertising research for the optimisation of accounting and financial data. Eyetracking analyses the visual path of for example a website visitor. Economics and happiness joint together in EHERO The multidisciplinary knowledge and expertise centre Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organisation (EHERO) is seeking to become a leader in stimulating multidisciplinary research into reliable methods of measuring happiness. EHERO started on 22 June 2012, with a symposium ‘Doorbraken in het geluksdenken: kosten, baten en impactmeting’ (Breakthroughs in Happiness Theory: Cost, Benefits and Impact Measurement). EHERO combines www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
research in happiness and fundamental economics. Results can be used to make more informed choices, both at individual level and at the policy level in government and business. The initiators of EHERO are ESE, the Institute of Health Policy and Management (iBMG) and the Faculty of Philosophy (FW). The initiative arose from the growing interest in happiness in both society and government and incorporates various areas of research.
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Conference on Business Sequence/Restructuring On Friday 29 June 2012, the Institute of Taxation and Economics (FEI BV), affiliated to ESE, held its annual conference in cooperation with R.F.V. Christiaanse-Taxateur and the students’ association. This year’s theme was ‘Business Sequence/Restructuring’. Both multinationals and small and medium-sized companies are facing fiscal and economic problems with sequence and/or restructuring. During the conference, various professionals held presentations and workshops from both a tax law and economic point of view. A compilation of presentations by all participants was published in December 2012 and can be downloaded at the following link: www.feibv.nl/userfiles/file/Congresbundel-geheel.pdf (Dutch language only). Fourth Transatlantic Workshop on the Economics of Crime On 5 and 6 October 2012, Professor Robert Dur of ESE gave a workshop on the Economics of Crime. Researchers from all over the world presented actual work and discussed the results. By doing so, interaction was created between empirical and theoretical analyses of crime and illegal behaviour. The workshop consisted of two keynote lectures - given by Jens Ludwig (University of Chicago) and Ron Clarke (Rutgers University) - and 12 contributed papers. Topics included human trafficking, regulation of prostitution, corruption, education and crime, cheating in the workplace, media exposure of crime suspects, obscenity laws, punishment of drunk driving, and the effects of policing. This workshop was the latest in a series of workshops on the Economics of Crime, with previous editions having been held in Paris (2009), Bonn (2010) and Torino (2011). Improving the Effectiveness of the Philanthropy Sector The Erasmus Centre for Strategic Philanthropy (ECSP), associated with ESE and of RSM aims to contribute to the overall performance and effectiveness of the philanthropy sector by building knowledge, capabilities and tools through academic research; by offering dedicated high-quality (executive) education; and by encouraging interaction and debate about philanthropy and its impact on society. ECSP operates with a European scope. It addresses the challenges www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
and needs of all philanthropic organisations in Europe, with a strong focus on issues concerning (endowed) foundations. The sector annually contributes over 50 billion euro to a large variety of projects. The services of the Centre are of a high international standard as they are backed by an innovative academic research programme focused on practical and impact-oriented issues within philanthropy.
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ECSP intends to contribute to the quality and effectiveness of the philanthropic sector through four main channels: Research, Education, Advice and Platform. In the Research area, various research programmes are set up in line with the ECSP’s goals and ESE and RSM’s expertise in management and economics. In 2012 ECSP carried out important academic research projects. In the field of Governance of foundations and not-for-profit organisations, a valuable framework has been developed that helps organisations to deal with the complexity of balancing the interests of major stakeholders in philanthropic organisations. On impact assessment and evaluation two new projects were started in collaboration with Nationale Postcode Loterij, Solidaridad and Children Asking. The research programme in association with Oranje Fonds focusing on upscaling the 'NL-Doet' project (national volunteering project) was continued. In 2012 the ECSP Staff delivered over 36 presentations and speeches and presented several papers. With this more than 2,000 people were reached on various occasions as there were the Social Impact Analysts Association (SIAA) meeting in Rotterdam, the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Actions (ARNOVA) in the United States and various other international organisations. Around 20 students participated in the ECSP Minor ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Non-Profit Management’. The Master’s Elective ‘Doing Good Done Better: Effective management of philanthropic NGOs’ was attended by 27 students. The Executive Management programme for not-for-profit organisations and philanthropic organisations was attended by 11 students.
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All education programmes were rated very positively by the attendees.
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04.03 - Contributions to political and public debate Besides its core duties of research and education, ESE has an important public responsibility and public role. In this respect, opportunities for our prominent academic staff to be exposed to, and share diverse perspectives on, the political and public debate are encouraged. Staff members take part in significant councils and committees and are regularly asked to share their views on subjects of current political and/or social relevance via the media. Our own platform is the Economieopinie.nl website, featuring newsworthy and current editorials about economic issues in the Netherlands and abroad. In this section, we would like to give you some representative examples of our researchers’ opinions or other significant participations. New tax measures in development At the start of 2012, Professor Peter Kavelaars of ESE was appointed member of the ‘Commissie Dijkhuizen’. This Committee was asked by the State Secretary of Finance to research future revisions of the Dutch Income Tax in order to establish a simple, solid and fraud-proof tax system to improve the Netherlands’ competitive position. The first report was published in mid-October, and the Committee proposed a number of significant measures. These included a cancellation of tax benefits for start-ups and self-employed individuals, a lower mortgage tax relief and a further increase in VAT, in combination with a lower income tax for the majority of the population. Are these relatively far-reaching measures required? According to Peter Kavelaars, the tax system should be revised every ten years: "It must be cleared." Furthermore, the committee’s proposal aims to manage economic trends, such as the housing and labour markets. In recent years, the latter were greatly encouraged by tax breaks. In an interview with BNR nieuwsradio, Peter Kavelaars said that this leads to very low tax pressure for the self-employed, and is fun because it encourages entrepreneurship. However, at some point the opposite happens, which we are seeing now, and employees are taxed more heavily than entrepreneurs. The final report is scheduled to be published in mid-2013.
Casper de Vries, Professor of Monetary Economics at ESE, was nominated by the Cabinet as a new crown member of the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER), serving from April 1 2012 till April 1 2014. The SER is the main advisory body to the Dutch government and parliament on national and international social and economic policy. Dean Philip Hans Franses was
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Academic input on SER
really pleased: "With his expertise, Casper de Vries is the ideal advisor. He has broad interests and in-depth knowledge of economic policy. ESE is very proud that Casper is joining the SER.” Crown members are independent experts who are appointed by the Crown but are not accountable to the government. Besides these independent experts the SER embodies employers’ representatives and union representatives. Casper de Vries holds the chair in Monetary Economics at ESE, is a fellow and was a board member of the Tinbergen Institute until January 2012 and a member of the EMU Monitor group. His graduate training was at Purdue University after which he held positions at Texas A&M University and K.U. Leuven. Casper de Vries’s research interest is in risk management. In addition, Job Swank, Professor of Economic Policy at ESE and Executive Director of Monetary Central Affairs and Financial Stability at De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB, the Dutch National Bank), has been nominated on behalf of DNB to join the SER. He is replacing Henk Brouwer, who left DNB as director last year. Job Swank was already an acting member of the Council. View on pensions Fieke van der Lecq, APG Professor of Pension Markets at ESE, regularly contributed to the pension debate in 2012, as it took place in all media and politics. Professor Van der Lecq was a member of the Economist panel of BNR nieuwsradio. Issues such as the low funding ratio of pension funds and the many self-employed individuals without personal pension plans were addressed. Asked whether low interest rates are part of the problems causing low funding ratios, Professor Van der Lecq replied: “In general, low interest rates do indeed play a role. However, the higher life expectancy was not sufficiently taken into account and also plays an important role.” About the self-employed, Van der Lecq said: "For many self-employed people, the opportunities for a personal pension plan are limited. They are dependent on annuities and bank savings of insurers and banks, which is costly compared to most group pension schemes. This is one of the reasons why many selfemployed individuals don’t take out individual pension insurance ".
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Knowledge valorisation at its best On Wednesday 13 July 2012, Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (at that time under resignation) had an informal meeting with professors of ESE. Rutte initiated this meeting, after another meeting earlier this year with Professors Bert de Groot, Philip Hans Franses and Frits Goldschmeding (founder of Randstad Holding NV). The Professors Han Bleichrodt, Otto Swank, Robert
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Dur, Onno Steenbeek, Bas Jacobs and Ivo Arnold shared their expert opinions and views on various issues, including macroeconomic trends related to the role of the financial markets, the healthcare system, housing, pension funds and the duty of the government from an institutional economic perspective. Afterwards Mark Rutte stated that he found the advice of the Professors on a number of current affairs very valuable: “This is knowledge valorisation at its best,� he said. Euro Crisis, Housing and retirements pensions Bas Jacobs, Professor of Economics and Public Finance at ESE, explained in the Economisch Statistische Berichten (ESB) of 28 September 2012 that the three biggest problems in need of a swift governmental solution are the euro crisis, housing and retirement pensions. According to Bas Jacobs, as a result of long-term changes on these three issues, the reconstruction of public finance required is less rigid than most political parties think. When reforming these issues and by providing clarification, fewer costs reductions will be needed. If long-term changes are not implemented, private companies will face bigger balance problems and the Netherlands will face a recession in 2013. Euro crisis and Greece Ivo Arnold, Professor of Monetary Economics, regularly shared his vision on the ongoing economic, political and euro crisis in Greece. Greece has an enormous burden of debt and the euro countries attempted to agree on a solution. The main problem is the long-term sustainability of the Greek debt. Whether the debt should be waived by reducing interest rates or extending the terms of repayment, it must be done in a way that is acceptable to taxpayers. Ivo Arnold is valued for his frequent appearances on radio and television and in
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various newspapers.
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04.04 - Nurturing lifelong relationships with our alumni Graduates and PhD graduates of Erasmus University Rotterdam are part of a worldwide network of over 45,000 alumni. EUR and ESE, in particular, see the importance of strengthening its bonds with its alumni and developing genuine, lifelong and interactive relationships with its alumni. It is clear that the potential power of our alumni community is rooted in the actual quality of the student experience. To strengthen the alumni presence at our School, we want them to actively participate in our programmes and events. We promote strategies and create facilities that allow students and alumni to interact, discuss career development, and network. Regular activities during the year ESE and the Erasmus Alumni Association (EAV) organise a number of annual events, including ESE Alumni Day in the spring at the opening of the EFR Business Week, and an ESE Alumni day in the autumn. New ESE alumni receive a two-year membership to the EAV as a gift from ESE. The Business Week Opening Day in spring 2012, which additionally served as an Alumni day (with the theme ‘Out of the box’) proved to be a fantastic event, culminating in a sumptuous dinner at the University. In addition, the autumn Alumni day of 2012 was held at DeKuyper Royal Distillers, hosted by EUR alumnus Bob DeKuyper, where the President of MKB Nederland (the organisation for small and medium-sized enterprises), Hans Biesheuvel and ESE alumnus Michiel Muller discussed how to be successful in the economic
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climate of 2012 and what role the government can play.
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Alumni return to their Alma Mater after decades since finishing their studies. In keeping with tradition, alumni return in large number to visit their Alma Mater. This year Maurits (C.E.R.B.E.Ru.S.), 1962, Rotterdamsch Studenten Corps (RSC), 1962, and Rotterdamsch Studenten Gezelschap (RSG), 1944-1967 made the journey back to their School and were reunited with friends and fellow students. ESE-Alumni website renewed ESE-Alumni website www.esealumni.nl has been fully renewed and updated with relevant information for alumni such as alumni-reunion announcements, EAV membership subscription and contract-research and postgraduate education. Support for research in neurobiological economics Willem Verbeke, Professor of Sales and Account Management at ESE and Harald Swinkels, CEO of the Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij and EUR alumnus, announced on 9 March 2012 the installation of the Nederlands Instituut voor Neuro Biologisch Economische Studie, NINBES (Dutch Institute for Research in Neurobiological Economics). The research focuses on the influence of genes, hormones and neural processes on interactions between people, for example the performance of salesmen and entrepreneurs. Willem Verbeke is happy with the participation of alumni in the innovative opportunities of ‘their’ university or School. Interested in his former pupils, Willem Verbeke keeps in touch with them and hopes many alumni will follow in contributing to
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promising research.
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04.05 - Erasmus School of Economics: a dynamic part of Rotterdam In addition to academic education and fundamental research ESE aims to engage actively with the public, business world, the government and the third sector (e.g. charities). True to our Rotterdam roots, ESE strives to augment its engagement with the City of Rotterdam, the city industrial/ port areas, the business community and the region as a whole. This section presents some examples of activities that have enhanced our visibility. Economic explorations for 2012 (EVR 2012) shows increasing of number of graduates At the presentation of its economic exploration for 2012, ‘Economische Verkenningen voor 2012’ (EVR 2012), on 9 February 2012, the City of Rotterdam presented its key figures and research results for urban and regional economics. The employment statistics of the metropolis RotterdamThe Hague were published as well this year. The number of graduates has increased by 4% over the past two decades. Though not spectacular, this is a great compliment to Erasmus University Rotterdam among others, according to City Council Member Korrie Louwes, because they are capable of attracting large numbers of students to Rotterdam and to offer study programmes that are connected with the city. Casper de Vries, Professor of Monetary Economics at ESE, closed the meeting by sharing his views on Rotterdam economics in relation to global economics. Successful hosting event for external contacts On Thursday, 21 June 2012, ESE hosted its various external contacts from the business sector, media, government and academia at Concours Hippique International Officiel (CHIO) in Rotterdam. The event consisted of a diverse equestrian programme that included show jumping and dressage on an international level. It was a very successful afternoon event. Due to the extreme weather conditions there was talk of an emergency evacuation, but luckily this wasn’t necessary.
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Jean-Claude Trichet at Mandeville Lecture 2012 On Wednesday 6 June 2012, Jean-Claude Trichet, former president of the European Central Bank, delivered the 18th Mandeville Lecture, entitled: 'Towards a New Economic European Governance'. Prior to the lecture, there was a Master class for top students and an expert meeting for bankers and economists took place. The Mandeville Lecture, named after the Rotterdam-
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born philosopher and doctor Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733), is a joint initiative of EUR, Rotterdam's business community (Club Rotterdam) and Vereniging Trustfonds Erasmus Universiteit. The first lecture was given in 1988. The Mandeville Lecture is given by individuals who have outstanding social achievements to their name and is the social equivalent of an honorary degree awarded by Erasmus University Rotterdam for academic achievement. Previous speakers include Joop van den Ende, Jeroen van der Veer, Bernard Bot, Lilian Gonçalves, Ruud Lubbers and Frits Bolkestein. In 1998 the lecture was given by Wim Duisenberg on the eve of the introduction of the euro. Jean-Claude Trichet (born 1942) was appointed as president of Banque de France, the French Central Bank, in 1993. Ten years later, in 2003, he succeeded Wim Duisenberg as president of the ECB. City of Rotterdam supports City Racing City Racing Rotterdam was held for the eighth time on 26 August 2012, attracting many visitors. Partly thanks to the visitor surveys conducted by ESE, the City Council of Rotterdam decided to keep supporting this event financially for at least two more years. 68% of the visitors visit Rotterdam especially for the City Racing, giving it an average rating of 8.2. The average of €30 spent per attendee nets the City of Rotterdam a profit of €10 million. 70% of the visitors are male, 42% are between 30 and 50 years old and most of them, 83%, live in the province of South Holland. And with 82% of the visitors bringing one or two children, City Racing Rotterdam is a real family outing. Most of them prefer to come by public transport, especially the underground. EFR party leaders debate on the eve of Election Day The Economic Faculty Association Rotterdam (EFR) and the television news show EenVandaag organised a debate between the Dutch political party leaders. This has been a tradition on the eve of Election Day since 2002, and on 6 September 2012 a lively debate was broadcast live from the Auditorium of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Participants included Mark Rutte (VVD), Emile Roemer (SP), Geert Wilders (PVV), Sybrand van Haersma Buma (CDA), Diederik Samson (PvdA) and Alexander Pechtold (D66). The winner of the debate was Mark Rutte, who became Prime Minister for the second time following the www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
VVD party’s election victory.
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U-Meet Debate EUR: we need innovation and modern craftsmanship On 4 October 2012, short before the opening of the Rotterdam Science Tower, EUR’s U-Meet debate was held. The theme of the debate between academics and entrepreneurs was how innovation and modern craftsmanship can solve the economic downturn. Willem Verbeke, Professor of Sales and Account Management at ESE, was among the contributors to this successful meeting. Professor Verbeke pleaded passionately for modern craftsmanship and a return of the manufacturing industry to the Netherlands. According to Willem
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Verbeke, the Netherlands should follow Germany’s example.
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Interview
Chen Zhou Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Economist in the Economic and Research Division of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) 1.
Last year, I worked on a few projects on measuring and assessing systemic risk of financial institutions. The objective of these projects was to gain a better understanding of systemic risk in the financial system. I adopt a modern statistical method, the Extreme Value Theory (EVT), to evaluate financial crises. This method was initially developed for analysing extreme sea levels. Identifying who the
I hope more current and future
“systemically important”
researchers and practitioners
players are is only the first
will be able to benefit from
step towards building the
the insights we have been
“dikes”. This is similar to
developing here at ESE.
understanding from where
Lastly, since my background
the sea level may rise when
is in EVT, I have a separate
building the real dikes. The
research track for continuously
next question is then how
developing fundamental
to protect against that.
techniques in EVT. Since doing
This objective motivates my
my PhD, I have tried to finish at
One project I worked on
further research on how
least one project each year that
last year involved testing
to fairly allocate the total
contributes to the statistical
the “too big to fail” claim.
system-wide risk to individual
theory of EVT. The year 2013
When big banks are rescued
institutions. This is what I
will not be an exception to this
by governments, the usual
have planned for my research
ambition and the open-minded
argument is that they are
in 2013. Besides my own
development of knowledge
“too big to fail”. In this
work on financial stability, I
at ESE will continue to inspire
project, we found that size
would be very much willing
me. The application of an
is not the sole determinant.
to promote the EVT method
instrument developed to
In fact, involvement in non-
for financial risk management
analyse sea levels in order to
traditional banking activities
and other fields in economics.
improve our understanding
such as derivative trading is
In fact, I am going to teach
of financial markets is an
also associated with systemic
the ‘Market and systemic risk
excellent example of how
importance. In other words,
management’ course at the
the ESE mindset stimulates
banks can be “too non-
Duisenberg School of Finance
the creation of valuable new
traditional to fail”.
next year.
insights.
1
Views expressed in this article are those of the author, which do not reflect official positions of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB).
94
Interview
"Since non-traditional banking leads to systemic importance of financial institutions, it should be carefully regulated; non-traditional thinking leads to breakthrough paths in academic research, and should therefore be greatly encouraged." 95
Interview
"Social media empowers customers to change the way companies do business."
96
Assistant Professor in the Department of Business Economics.
The explosive growth of social media empowers customers to change the way companies do business. The user-generated content as a by-product of customers’ social interactions provides companies with an innovative way of market research. By monitoring customers’ discussions and talks on a real-time basis, firms can not only explore user experiences and feedbacks but also monitor potential risks and threats. interactions in marketplaces,
in the Netherlands was a
using text-mining techniques,
surprisingly smooth process.
network analysis and
Everyone at ESE gave me a
econometric models. One of
warm welcome, sometimes
my research projects, which
providing me with practical
recently won the prestigious
advice. I have yet to get used
Marie Curie IIF grant,
to this country with its erratic
focuses on developing
climate, but the process is
product positioning maps
and will be very enjoyable.
utilising products-to-tags
My 5-month experience at
networks on Amazon
ESE has taught me that the
Clearly this is the age of
Marketplace. In the near
School demands no less
social media. Despite the
future, I plan to further
than the highest standard
enormous potential of
investigate how to effectively
of academic dedication and
user-generated content, the
obtain and analyse the voice
diligence from each faculty
unstructured, complex nature
of customers on social media
member. Colleagues and staff
of big-size data presents
platforms for new product
take great pride in their work
a challenge to effectively
ideation.
and it is a true pleasure to discuss the ideas and explore
analysing and interpreting the value of the content. Such
Going Dutch
research collaboration with
unsatisfied research needs
It has been an exciting
them. Also, it was thanks
drive me to be interested in
journey in my career to
to institutionalised support
research on social media. My
change from being a brand
from the School, like the
primary research interests lie
management analyst in South
Erasmus Centre for Marketing
in understanding consumers’
Korea to the doctorate track
of Innovation (ECMI), that
thoughts and perceptions
at the University of Maryland
I could remain productive
revealed through social
in the United States, and
and have access to essential
interactions and investigating
finally to land in the city of
resources.
the drivers and consequences
Rotterdam. Despite my initial
of such complex social
concerns, getting settled
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Interview
Hyoryung Nam
Interview
Wilco van den Heuvel Assistant Professor of Management Science at the Econometric Institute.
Production planning involves determining the optimal timing and level of production in order to satisfy demand at minimal cost. Since computational power has increased significantly over time, researchers are trying to solve more complex production planning problems. In our paper “Integrated market selection and production planning: complexity and solution approaches”, recently published in Mathematical Programming, we add one dimension of complexity by integrating production planning and market selection. We are given a number of potential markets together with their (projected) demands. The question is to simultaneously select a set of markets and to construct a production plan (for the selected markets), such that total profit is maximised. Motivation
Goals
During my studies of
I want to help my research
Econometrics, I learned that
area forward by tackling
maths is not only beautiful,
interesting problems and to
but it has many applications
see whether techniques from
as well. For this reason, I
the field of econometrics can
decided to pursue a PhD,
be applied to other research
where I started working on
areas as well. Hopefully,
several types of production
this will lead to various
planning problems. I never
high-level publications and
lost interest in doing
to me being one of the top
We show that it is very
research. As a researcher you
researchers in the field. So far,
unlikely that the problem can
work on the frontier of what
ESE has helped me achieve
be solved within a reasonable
is known and unknown, and
these goals by creating a
amount of computation
it gives great satisfaction to
stimulating and comfortable
time. Therefore, we develop
be able to move this frontier
working environment
a heuristic to solve the
bit by bit. Although doing
where I can develop as an
problem, which is shown to
research sometimes goes
independent researcher,
work well. Companies facing
hand in hand with frustration, and I am confident ESE will
the selection of markets
the beauty of it is to come
continue to do this in the
and appropriate production
to the essence of a problem,
future.
planning may use the
to tackle the problem and
approach from our paper in
to hopefully have a “Eureka
order to maximise profit.
moment” at the end.
98
Interview
"The beauty of research is to come to the essence of a problem, to tackle the problem preferably from an unexpected angle, and to hopefully experience a “Eureka moment�."
99
Interview
"I enjoy working with players in the field, creating real-life experiments to determine true causal relations. If you want to impact society with your research, you need to get out there." 100
Professor of Economics of Incentives and Performance.
Rotterdam has a no-nonsense, let’s-get-things-done culture which I very much enjoy in general. One experiences this culture at ESE as well. Whether you are a professor or a post-doc, if you have a good idea for a research project or to bring together experts from different institutions, you will generally find that ESE will support you in realising that new initiative. This willingness to keep moving forward is also reflected in the ESE curriculum. New courses and innovative initiatives in existing courses are always taken seriously. This is essential in order to keep up with the rapid developments in the field. number of weekly cleaning
coalition decided to cancel
sessions by the municipality,
the funding. The successful
we tested if rubbish attracts
setup of the programme
rubbish or if people become
still provides an example
more self-reliant when the
to politicians. Experiments
government steps back. The
analysing the effects of
dominant response is to
government policy can
place more rubbish on the
actually be conducted in the
street when the government
Netherlands!
cleans up less often. These results gave the municipality
Experimental research allows
I try to do research with
the option to decide on
us to impact society by
a social or policy impact.
policy based on evidence
providing evidence-based
As such I aim to determine
instead of political ideology
knowledge and depoliticising
causal relations instead
or beliefs.
decision making. ESE has always been supportive
of simply identifying correlations. Experiments
Incentive pay
of our efforts to set up
are one of the best ways
A big project in 2012 was to
practical experiments and
to do this, even though
run field experiments with
I am looking forward to
setting them up poses some
incentive pay at primary
getting out there again this
challenges at times. Last
and secondary schools,
year and creating more
year I analysed the effects of
funded by a substantial
practical knowledge for both
different incentive schemes
budget from the Rutte-I
academics and players in
for the public concerning
government. Unfortunately,
the field.
the disposal of garbage in
after gathering several
several neighbourhoods in
schools willing to participate
Rotterdam. By reducing the
in experiments, the ‘Spring’
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Interview
Robert Dur
Interview
Marco de Haas Director of S-ray Diagnostics
Knowledge valorisation is on the academic agenda at EUR and will only grow in importance in the years to come. I am extremely pleased with this development. It should become common practice to create economic value from our core scientific business, especially at ESE. together for a number of
through contract research.
years on a joint research project, unique in itself, since
Our knowledge-making
it was rooted in both ESE and
enables us to make money.
RSM.
But our moneymaking in turn enables us to make
We discovered that
knowledge. Since each
to valorise scientific
contract not only brings in
knowledge successfully,
money, it also brings in a
we needed to translate it
unique empirical data set. The
into a comprehensive and
symbiotic interplay between
This is exactly what we are
pragmatic format. We had
these two knowledge
doing at S-ray Diagnostics.
to turn it into a product,
activities is the beauty of
S-ray Diagnostics was
allowing us to market and
S-ray Diagnostics in my
founded in 2011 by
sell it. It is an essential step
opinion.
Patrick Groenen, Professor
that has basically nothing to
of the Econometric
do with science and it takes
Turning scientific knowledge
Institute at ESE, Daan van
a lot of time. We developed
into marketable products and
Knippenberg, Professor of
a diagnostic product that
doing hard sales requires
the Organisational Behaviour
quantifies and visualises
commercial spirit and
department at RSM, and
the strategic alignment
entrepreneurial persistence.
myself, previously appointed
within and between the
The good scientist is good at
to ESE’s Business Economics
units jointly constituting
science. And that’s more than
department. We teamed up
an organisation. We call it
enough. I’ve learned that
with Nico van der Windt, who
the S-ray Alignment Scan.
I’m not a hard-core scientist,
runs the Erasmus University
Companies and organisations
although I do hold a PhD.
Centre for Contract Research
can now hire us to apply
What I like to do most is sell
and Business Support (ERBS
our knowledge to their case.
our science to market parties.
BV), established to incubate
What we do is twofold: we
Both Daan and Patrick have
valorisation initiatives. We
develop scientific knowledge
their own agenda, one that is
had already been working
and simultaneously valorise it
filled with science.
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Interview
"If you plan to valorise knowledge yourself, dare to team up with people who are at least a little bit different than yourself and it might actually happen!"
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05
ESE Today
Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) is a leading brand in the field of economics. We would like to maintain and, where possible, improve this position. In this chapter we provide general information about the resources with which we intend to achieve this: our organisation, our financial means and our workforce. It is this workforce which makes the difference between being a good school and being an excellent school. We are proud to have amongst us the best scholars in their field, along with a dedicated support staff.
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#
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05 ESE Today
#
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05.02 ESE at a glance
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05.03 Annual Human Resources Report
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05.04 Annual Financial Report
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05.01 Organisational chart
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5
ESE TodAy
This chapter gives a general survey of all the features that make up our School. We start with an organisational chart and give the facts and figures for 2012. Next, we provide information about our workforce and financial results, including the changes in personnel costs in 2012.
05.01 - ESE Organisational chart The organisational chart shows the structure of ESE. As the chart shows, our School has a clear focus on economics. Furthermore, there is a close relationship between the two main pillars of our School: education and research. This close relationship is guarded by the involvement of all our academic staff in both fields. The internal ESE organisation is essentially designed per academic field within four departments. The Education Management recruits teaching staff for the courses via the departments. ESE organises all research in their research programmes as well as the two research schools accredited by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science (KNAW): Tinbergen Institute (TI) and Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM). Both research institutes are involved in implementing the School’s research policies. ESE’s seven research programmes are closely connected to the programmes of the research institutes. For its contract funding (education and research), ESE is supported by a group of private limited companies which are, in turn, part of EUR Holding BV. Dean Administration Office ESE
Education
School Council
Tinbergen Institute
Examination Board
Research
Research Advisory Board
Erasmus Research Institute of Management
Education Committees Departments expertise
Economics
Business Economics
Econometrics
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Applied Economics
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Education Management
05.02 - ESE at a glance This paragraph shows the main indicators of ESE’s student population, staff, research programmes, affiliated institutions and financial position.
Students
2007/08
Registered students
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/2012
4258 4248 4470 4648 4662
Incoming exchange students 147 108 99 103 155 Outgoing exchange students 41 73 79 70 85
Programmes 4 Bachelor’s programmes (BSc)
BSc Economics and Business Economics
BSc Econometrics and Operational Research
BSc Fiscale Economie (Dutch only)
BSc Economics and Informatics
5 Master’s initial programmes (MSc)
MSc Economics and Business
MSc Econometrics and Management Science
MSc Fiscale Economie (Dutch only)
MSc Economics and Informatics
MSC Accounting, Auditing and Control
5 Master’s post initial programmes
Executive Master of Finance and Control
Master City Developer
Management of Global Competitive Urban Regions: towards a Sustainable Urban System
Maritime Economics & Logistics
Master in Urban Management and Development
2 Research Master’s (MSc)
MSc/MPhil in Economics
MSc/MPhil in Business Research
Research programmes
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7 research programmes (since 2011) Econometrics
Finance and Accounting
Health and Behaviour
International Economics
Management Science
Managerial Economics
Marketing
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Membership Research Schools Fellows/members of TI and/or ERIM
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
63% 61% 71% 69% 76% 77%
Number of PhD theses Number of PhD theses
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
24 26 15 21 30 18
Finance Finance (x 1,000)
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Income
24837 27249 29043 32352 33368 32847
Results
1557 1683 1518 2151 1694 -666
reserve
694 2322 3721 5821 7604 6917
Affiliated institutes Research schools Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)
www.erim.nl
Tinbergen Institute (TI)
www.tinbergen.nl
Collaboration with RSM and Adessium Foundation Erasmus Centre for Strategic Philanthropy
www.ecsp.nl
Erasmus Academie
www.erasmusacademie.nl
Erasmus University Centre for Contract Research and Business Support (ERBS)
www.eur.nl/informatie_voor/bedrijven/ eurholdingbv/werkmaatschappijen/erbs/
EURAC
www.esaa.nl
Fiscaal Economisch Instituut (FEI)
www.feibv.nl
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS, 50%)
www.ihs.nl
Instituut voor Sales en Account Management (ISAM)
www.isam.nl
Erasmus SmartPort Rotterdam
www.maritimeeconomics.com and www.erim.eur.nl/research/centres/smart-port/
Regionale Economie, Haven- en Vervoerseconomie (RHV)
www.eur.nl/rhv/
Sociaal-Economisch Onderzoek Rotterdam BV (SEOR)
www.seor.nl
Stichting Maatschappij en Onderneming (Instituut SMO)
www.smo.nl
Holland Program on Entrepreneurship (HOPE) (together with EUR and RSM)
www.hope-rdam.nl
S-Ray Diagnostics
www.s-ray.nl
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Associate Limited Companies
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05.03 - Human Resources annual report Over 70% of our operating budget is allocated towards personnel costs, and our employees are therefore the single greatest investment of ESE. ESE believes it’s important to create an environment in which respect, equal opportunities, and diversity are promoted, and everyone is encouraged to achieve their full potential. At ESE, we strive to foster a sense of belonging and a culture in which the views of students and employees are greatly valued. Our staff is encouraged to undertake responsibilities associated with the School and to contribute to the greater Rotterdam area, on a voluntary basis or professionally. In order to build a community based on these essential values, effective and visible leadership within the School is a core principle.
05.03.01 - Information about ESE’s workforce The purpose of this section is to provide an overview of ESE’s workforce. It presents a range of key human resource indicators, including the numbers of staff broken down by position (academic and support staff), employment type (permanent or fixed-term), gender, age structure and nationality. Changes in personnel 2009 - 2012 On the reference date, 31 December 2012, 496 people were employed at ESE. On this same date in 2011, the School employed 452 people. The number of staff members is therefore still increasing, as is the number of FTEs. The number of FTEs at ESE increased from 305 on 31 December 2012 to 334 a year later. In 2012 the number of professors and associate professors increased, while the number of assistant professors remained relatively stable. The number of PhD students is still increasing: in 2012 it was up 17% from the previous year. And if we take 2009 as our basis, we notice an increase of 33%. The number of Student Assistants keeps growing, although this increase declined from 19%
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in 2010 to 16% in 2011 and finally to 12% in 2012.
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Total FTE per job category 2008 - 2012 120
100
80
60
40
20
0 Professor Assoc. Assist. Mature PhD Student Support Prof Prof Talent students ass. Staff
FTE 2009
35,55 5,7 58 7,6 80,6 26,53 66,99
FTE 2010
33,95
9
64
5,8 87,9 31,51 62,98
FTE 2011
32,65
9,5 70,86
2 91,35 36,45 62,27
FTE 2012
36,45 11,7 71,27
1 106,8 40,68 65,97
The number of female employees has increased by18%, while total staff has increased by 10%. So although the change is gradual, the gap between male and female staff is slowly narrowing: from 33% in 2011 to 36% in 2012.
Number and FTE of staff (total and female) 600 500 400 300 200 100 0
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Number of ESE staff
FTE (total)
Number of female staff
FTE female
2009
2010
2011
2012
405 431 452 496 279,97 295,14 305,08 333,87 134 137 147 180 88,40 94,70 98,99 120,47
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ESE still getting younger Mainly due to the fact that both the number of PhD students and the number of new assistant professors have increased more than in the other categories, the average age of ESE staff is declining each year. The average age in 2012 was 37.8, down from 38.3 the previous year. Age structure 2009 - 2012
Age structure 2009 - 2012 120
100
80
60
40
20
0
< 26
26 - 30
31 - 40
41 - 50
51 - 60
> 61
2009
40 68 79 53 56 11
2010
33 79 88 44 59 13
2011
29 86 87 44 57 13
2012
36 84 105 49 56 12
Young ESE Programme welcomes young staff members! In the fall of 2012, a new initiative to help young staff members feel welcome and integrated at ESE was developed by Aurelion Baillon, Hans van Kippersluis and other ESE members. The initiative is called the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Young ESE Programme (YEP)â&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Yep strives to better integrate new staff members, improve internal opportunities and share experiences and build a voice for young staff members. The first welcome drink on 15 November 2012 was very successful: about 60 colleagues created a very welcoming, informal, and nice atmosphere and gave opportunity to meet colleagues within ESE.
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communication and create awareness of available support, create networking
05.03.02 - Diversity programmes As a university we welcome everyone to join our community based on their talents. Vital to our success as a School, ESE aims to ensure the composition of our staff to our student population. Diversity provides students and staff with the opportunity to learn from others who differ from them, encourages critical thinking, and creates opportunities to challenge preconceived notions. Communicating effectively with people from varied backgrounds and fostering mutual respect is one of our main objectives. Relative number of female/male staff per job category (%) Compared to the year before, we are seeing a positive trend in the percentage of women in almost all academic categories, with the exception of professors. In the associate professors, assistant professors and student assistants categories, we note an increase of 6%. In addition, the number of female PhD students has increased by 7%. The relative number of female/male staff represents the relative number of our female/male students: in 2012 30.4% of our Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s students were female. We expect to see a gradual increase in the number of female professors in future years.
Relative number of female/male staff per job category (%) 120
100
80
60
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20
0 Professor Assoc. Assist. Mature PhD Student Support Total Prof Prof Talent student ass. Staff Academic Staff
2012 women 1% 17% 33% 100% 35% 36% 63%
29%
2012 men
71%
99% 83% 67% 0% 65% 64% 37%
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42 different nationalities On December 31, 2012, 42 different nationalities were employed at ESE, compared with 37 different nationalities in 2011. The Polish and Greek nationalities dropped out of the top 10, while Russian and Bulgarian are ranked higher this year. The table below shows the top 10 of nationalities among ESE staff.
Top 10 nationalities among ESE staff Dutch 369 Chinese 24 German 20 Turkish 10 Belgian 9 Bulgarian 7 Russian 6 Lithuanian 6 Italian 5 Romanian 5
Research Traineeship Programme A substantial grant has been awarded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to ESEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Research Traineeship Programme, as part of the Diversity Programme of Erasmus University Rotterdam. The aim of this programme is to interest excellent students from a variety of cultural backgrounds in pursuing an academic career. In 2012, all seven participants in the programme received a certificate. During the academic year 2012-2013, 8 new participants were recruited and paired with the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top researchers. The students are offered jobs as student assistants and receive hands-on training in an inspiring research environment. They also attend a three-weekly seminar series on research methods, presentation techniques, academic career prospects and cultural aspects, relevant to those interested in pursuing academic research.
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Mature talent programme In 2007 the School launched the Mature Talent Project to increase the number of talented women among its academic staff. This project was aimed at women who already had a few years of working experience in business or with governmental organisations and who wished to acquire a PhD. In 2012 the last three mature talents in this project defended their PhD theses.
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Four mature talents have found jobs outside the University, four are employed as assistant professor, and one is now part of the managing staff of our School. All of the talents were positive about their step to find out whether such a career would suit them, although many realised that an academic career is quite different from a career in business or government. Mentoring programme In 2011 ESE started a mentoring programme for women, in collaboration with EUR. Female assistant professors could opt to be assigned a mentor â&#x20AC;&#x201C; either a member of ESE or of another School. Experience at other universities has shown that mentoring helps employees create awareness of their career goals as well as to experience personal growth, take more targeted action, and set more ambitious goals for themselves. Both mentors and mentees were very positive about the project. The mentees learned a lot and had a better overview of their career objectives, as well as how to achieve these. The mentors of ESE staff, associate or full professors, were also positive about coaching women, as this enabled them to become more aware of the specific career situation of women and develop coaching skills. The mentors have broadened their minds and become more aware of the menteesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; problems. Besides, all participants found it interesting to learn more about other faculties. The project was completed in September. Exemption from teaching after maternity leave This pilot project, as part of which female employees are partially relieved from teaching duties after their maternity leave, was launched in 2011 and ran for two years. In 2012, four of our employees took advantage of this opportunity. No new requests were received, as none of our female academic staff became pregnant in 2012. The EUR board recently decided to continue the pilot project for another year, and ESE is expecting at least one request
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in 2013.
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05.03.03 - Employee health and well-being ESE aims to create an environment based on mutual respect and integrity. We believe that a healthy and positive working environment at all levels rewards staff members for their effort, thereby making it possible for them to perform at their best. In order to build and maintain a committed workforce, we invest in a safe, healthy, supportive, caring, and empowering environment. We want to create an atmosphere that motivates all our staff members and guides our employees towards excellence. And by playing an active role we aim to successfully enhance ESE’s position as an international centre of academic excellence. ESE-bility day 2012 on board paddle steamer “De Majesteit” Many members of our staff consider social events an important aspect of the ESE community. Every year ESE organises Christmas Drinks, a wonderful occasion to reward excellent staff members for their commitment and performance over the past year. Another tradition has become the ‘ESE-bility’ day, held on 19 June 2012. For the second year in a row, we were hosted on the paddle steamer “De Majesteit”. With an afternoon and evening programme, colleagues gathered together and some of them revealed hidden skills and talents, like playing the piano, singing or playing the guitar. Erasmus Vitality Sports Day 2012 Tuesday 25 September marked the annual 'Erasmus Vitaal' Sports Day for EUR employees. Each of our University’s schools and departments could settle their differences by competing against each other. Naturally, ESE participated with a delegation of the most athletically gifted women and men our School has to offer. Members of ESE’s team consisted of all kinds of staff to represent our School. For instance, our PhD candidates, student assistants, academics and other employees were all represented in our ESE-Dream Team. This ESE Dream Team performed extremely well and beat its opponents in most areas. Unfortunately, in 2012 our best efforts were not enough to win the first prize,
Absence rates Absence management is a top priority for ESE and this is reflected in the figures. In 2012, the absenteeism rate was 2.02 per cent. This is slightly higher than the percentage for 2011 but lower than the rate for EUR as a whole. Traditionally, absenteeism is higher amongst support staff than amongst academic staff.
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but we did manage a respectable podium finish.
The duration of absences was longer than in 2011 and main reason for this is the fact that a small number of people were seriously ill for a longer period of time. They were closely supervised during the reintegration process.
Absence due to sickness 2012
absence Duration percentage of absence
Reporting frequency
ESE EUR
Academic Staff
1.97 1.47 23.81 17.28
ESE EUR
Support Staff
2.13 3.84 8.44 11.89
Total
2.02 2.53
14 13.34
% of personnel never absent due to sickness
ESE EUR 0.35 0.5
ESE EUR 82.05 73.86
0.7 1.41
84.02 59.76
0.52 0.96
83.24 66.13
Absence of ESE staff due to illness over the years 3
2,81
2,5 2,13 2,03
2
1,83
1,85
1,82 1,97
1,5
1,72
1,57 1,49 1,46
1,39
1 Academic Staff Support Staff
0,5
Total Linear (total)
0
2009 2010 2011 2012
Absence of ESE staff due to illness over the years
2009
2010
2011
2012
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Academic Staff 1.83 1.39 1.46 1.97 Support Staff 1.49 2.81 1.82 2.13 Total
1.72
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1.85
1.57
2.02
Risk Assessment & Evaluation In 2012, the Risk Assessment & Evaluation (commonly known as RA&E) was reviewed. Actions agreed upon in 2010 were carried out. During 2012, a workplace survey was conducted for every employee. New employees and employees receiving a new desk or office were offered a workplace survey within 4 months. In close collaboration with EFB and the fire brigade, an evacuation exercise of the H Building was completed in October 2012. The evacuation was carried out smoothly, although some areas for improvement were identified and will be taken into account in the next evacuation and update of evacuation procedures. High scores for ESE in professionalism, teamwork and fair play Scores for professionalism, teamwork and fair play in the 2011 performance appraisals (carried out in 2012) show that overall all three categories once again were awarded an average score of 8 or more. Employees have valued their team, managers the employees. The fluctuation in the scores is, in retrospect over the past years, very small. The directors of departments and the Dean focused on the scores among teams in the annual discussion of the performance appraisal reports. On the individual level there are a few low scores in professionalism, teamwork and fair play. The background of these individual scores remains very diverse, with no identifiable common factor.
ESE Scores 2011 in our core values Employees
Professionalism
Teamwork
Fair play
8.1 7.9 8.2
Managers
8.7 8.6 8.7
2009
Employees
8.4 8 8.4
Managers
8.5 8.5 8.9
2010
Employees
8.3 8.3 8.5
Managers
8.5 8.7 8.8
2011
Employees
8.4 8.1 8.4
Managers
8.6 8.6 8.8
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Year 2008
05.03.04 - Inaugural addresses in 2012, appointments and
PhD ceremonies
For each newly appointed professor, their inaugural lecture is a momentous occasion is his or her career and a great opportunity to inform colleagues, the campus community and the general public of their work. In 2012, three inaugural ceremonies were held. ESE honours their retiring professors with a farewell lecture, but in 2012 no such ceremonies were held. Professor Onno Steenbeek: Risks of a good pension On Thursday 19 April 2012, Onno Steenbeek, Endowed Professor of Pension Fund Risk Management, held his inaugural address entitled: ‘Risks of a good pension’. The focus of the lecture was that inadequate communication has undermined the principle of solidarity in group pensions and has created uncertainty, and even aversion, to pensions, especially among the younger generations. Onno Steenbeek combines his academic work with that of head of the All Pension Group's (APG) Corporate ALM and Risk Policy. Professor Maarten Pronk: Financial Accounting, Too Practical for Theory and Too Theoretical for Practice? On Friday 29 June 2012, Maarten Pronk, Professor in Accounting, argued in his inaugural address entitled ‘Financial Accounting, Too Practical for Theory and Too Theoretical for Practice?’ that financial accounting is certainly not too practical for theory. For Maarten Pronk, the question whether financial accounting research is too theoretical for practice is much more intriguing. Various academics have expressed criticism in recent years regarding the relevance of this type of research. This criticism focuses on the use of research methods that are adequate for performing research based on historical data, but through which the research, by definition, is given a reactive nature. Those methods only enable research of situations that have already occurred and often not until many years later, since sufficient data must be available. In recent years, financial accounting research has certainly generated important insights, but the reactive nature of the research gives financial accounting www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
research limited relevance to current issues confronting the business sector. By consequence, resolution of current problems is largely left to the business sector, even though academics have unique knowledge and skills that would enable them to contribute significantly to resolving important issues. Maarten Pronk is also a part-time member of the Ernst & Young's Professional Practice department.
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Professor Victor Maas: The Controller as a Choice Architect On Friday 5 October 2012, Victor Maas, Endowed Professor of Management Accounting, delivered his inaugural speech entitled: ‘The Controller as a Choice Architect.’ Victor Maas focused on the responsibilities of controllers as the prudential conscience of an organisation. The controllers function is to be aware of how managers make decisions. In that, non-financial incentives are as important as financial incentives. For managers, at first sight trivial matters as the presentation of data and the framing of choices have a clear impact on the choices they make. Controllers need to become more psychological, just like other economists, to keep the field of controlling relevant in organisations. They need to be aware of their role as ‘choice architects’. Appointments - Onno Steenbeek, Endowed Professor of Pension Fund Risk Management, 1 February 2012 - Enrico Pennings, Full Professor of Applied Industrial Organization, 1 March 2012 (was Endowed Professor) - Victor Maas, Endowed Professor of Management Accounting, 1 March 2012 - Bas Donkers, Endowed Professor of Marketing Research,1 May 2012 - Dennis Fok, Endowed Professor of Applied Econometrics, 1 July 2012 - Richard Paap, Full Professor of Econometrics, 1 July 2012 (was Endowed Professor) - Patrick Verwijmeren, Endowed Professor of Corporate Finance,
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1 December 2012
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PhD Ceremonies - Cem Çakmaklı: PhD thesis 'Exploiting Common Features in Macroeconomic and Financial Data', 26 January 2012 - Monique Veld: PhD thesis 'HRM, strategic climate and employee outcomes in hospitals: HRM care for cure’, 3 February 2012 - Mirjam van Ginkel-Bieshaar: PhD thesis ‘Impact of Abstract versus Concrete Product Communications on Consumer Decision-making Processes', 1 March 2012 - Mariska Douwens-Zonneveld: PhD thesis 'Animal Spirits and Extreme Confidence: No Guts, No Glory?’, 29 March 2012 - Rianne Legerstee: PhD thesis 'Evaluating Econometric Models and Expert Intuition', 10 May 2012 - Julia Swart: PhD thesis ‘Natural resources and the environment: Implications for economic development and international relations’, 29 May 2012 - Dan Zhang: PhD thesis 'Essays in Executive Compensation', 7 June 2012 - Bart Voogt: PhD thesis 'Essays on Consumer Search and Dynamic Committees’, 14 June 2012 - Heleen Mees: PhD thesis ‘Changing Fortunes - How China’s Boom Caused the Financial Crisis’, 28 August 2012 - Arno Nuijten,: PhD thesis ‘Effect for Risk Warnings - A causal examination applied to Information Systems Projects', 29 August 2012 - Amit Kothiyal: PhD thesis ‘Subjective Probability and Ambiguity’, 13 September 2012 - Esen Erdogan-Ciftci: PhD thesis ‘Health perceptions and labour force participation of older workers’, 28 September 2012 - Simon Lansdorp: PhD thesis ‘Risks and Opportunities in Financial Markets', 29 November 2012 - Dimitrios Tsekouras, PhD thesis ‘No Pain No Gain: The Beneficial Role of Consumer Effort in Decision-Making', 13 November 2012 - Bas Dieleman, PhD thesis 'Valuation of pension obligations; tax law versus accounting standards', 22 November 2012 - Jorn Zenhorst, PhD thesis 'Macroeconomic Perspectives on the Equity Premium Puzzle', 13 December 2012 20 December 2012 - Suzanne Bijkerk: PhD thesis ‘Coping with Credit Risk: Essays on defaulted bonds, asset based lending and provisioning for loan losses by financial institutions’, 20 December 2012
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- Antonio Di Cesare, PhD thesis ‘Risks of Leveraged Products,
05.03.05 - ESE and its surroundings ESE aims to create an energetic, inspiring and encouraging environment for our staff members, where the expression of appreciation is part of our culture. We would also like to increase our involvement in the Rotterdam community. Successful appreciation brunch for external personnel On Thursday 14 June 2012, 32 ESE employees, along with 48 colleagues from various support services and companies, enjoyed a brunch in Sienna, organised by ESE. The appreciation day is almost becoming a tradition. ESE organises this brunch to express its great appreciation for the day-to-day work of all employees who provide important services to the School, such as security personnel and invigilators, GOM cleaning staff, postal and logistics staff and employees of Albron Catering. Several ESE employees hosted the event. Dean Professor Philip Hans Franses spoke appreciatively on behalf of ESE about the efforts and involvement of all invited guests. After the brunch the guests received a gift, as a token of appreciation for their efforts. Refurbishing Weena playground near Rotterdam Central Station On 22 May 2012, a large group of ESE and other occupants of the H-building repeated the refurbishing of a playground near Rotterdam Central Station. Weena playground includes a pavilion and toy library where local children can play from morning till night 365 days a year. Although we did a lot of work in 2011, some equipment still needed a fresh coat of paint. The playground was weeded and many other small jobs were completed; duties for which the playground personnel did not have time. About 36 ESE, ICT and Philosophy employees set to work enthusiastically on that sunny day and again the result was smiles all round. Firstly among the participants themselves, who gained a great sense of satisfaction from the refurbishment, but also from those who have taken on the day-to-day management of the playground. Once again, a lot of work was performed in a single afternoon
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and everyone was very happy with the result.
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05.03.06 - Talent management In order to achieve current and future goals and objectives, ESE needs a continuous supply of talent. It is important to have effective recruitment strategies, and our performance management processes must include training and development opportunities as well as career development initiatives. At ESE we have a great interest in learning and development opportunities for all our staff. Dutch and English Language Courses ESE’s staff members are from increasingly international backgrounds. The percentage of employees of non-Dutch origin accounted for 28.07% of all ESE staff as of 31 December 2012 (versus 26.6% in 2011). Excluding teaching assistants, the rate is even higher: 32.75%. ESE wants to advance bilingualism among both Dutch and non-Dutch staff. Dutch language courses are offered to help foreign-born staff integrate into Dutch society more easily. And both Dutch and non-Dutch staff are offered English courses. There has been a significant interest in both these courses. Introductory meetings for new staff ESE has been organising regular introductory meetings for new staff since 2006. In 2012, a total of three introductory meetings were held. Each meeting has both an informational component, with speeches by the Dean and Vice Dean on the history, strategy and goals of the School and some videos about specific programmes, and an interactive component with a ‘speed-dating’ session and a quiz. Due to construction activities on the EUR campus, the campus tour, which is usually part of the meeting, had to be left out. The programme was concluded with a lunch. Feedback from participants about these introductory meetings is positive, as it allows them to become acquainted with ESE and get to know their colleagues. Training programmes for ESE staff The Basic Qualification for Teaching and the Academic Leadership Course form professors qualified for the Basic Teaching Qualification. The sitting staff was also assessed last year, and 93 faculty members were exempted from the course. A total of 8 staff members attended the Academic Leadership Course.
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part of the training programme for Academic Staff. In 2012, a total of 9 assistant
Hans van Kippersluis: “Authentic and Assertive Dynamics is a very useful training course for teachers and researchers to discuss difficult situations and search for solutions to those situations. The training is practical and solutionoriented. There is ample opportunity to discuss and practice situations that are proposed by students through role-plays. Especially the hints on time management, conducting difficult ‘bad-news’ interviews, and the ‘switchbox' were extremely useful and have a direct impact on people’s day-to-day duties and responsibilities.”
The very successful course Authentic and Assertive Academics of 2011 had a follow-up in autumn 2012. Five members of our academic staff attended this course. The theme of the course is: Our society is changing, people have become more assertive and this also applies to our student population. How can we deal with them without losing authenticity? The staff members who took this course improved their skills in anticipating changes and showing more authority in their interactions with students. Since support staff became very interested in taking a similar course, two derivates were created in cooperation with the Erasmus Student Service Center ESSC: ‘How to interact with assertive students’ for a group of 8 employees of the Education Service Centre and a group of the ESSC and ‘Effective Assertive Communication’ for 22 secretaries (4 groups). In the participants’ evaluations, both courses were evaluated with an average score of 8. Besides these in-company training courses, staff members attended many individual training courses, with themes such as leadership, writing and outlook. For twelve employees, we offered two or three sparring sessions with an actor to train on communications problems. It has proved to be a very effective, efficient and practical way to improve communication. Competence management www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
As a follow-up the feedback training was repeated in 2012. Of the supporting staff 19 members attended the course. For academic staff a training course on targets was provided and three members attended this course. In the next year we will explore ways to continue to use the competence management tool in a useful and effective manner.
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05.04 - Annual Financial Report
05.04.01 - Introduction ESE ended the calendar year 2012 with a loss (k€ 666-). ESE has a reserve position of k€ 6,917, which accounts for 28% from the budget transferred (k€ 24,503). Despite the loss incurred in 2012, our overall financial situation remains solid and is in line with ESE’s medium-term plan. Changes in revenue include a decrease in budget transferred (first flow) and an increase in other income. The decrease in first-flow budget is mainly the result of the parameters research evaluation and doctorandus diplomas. The rise in other income is the result of: - an increase in projects financed by private limited companies affiliated with ESE (dividend); and - notional income from iBMG (also in other expenses) to correspond to the figures for the Netspar project; and - more income from ERIM / RSM; and
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- less contract funding (partnerships with third parties).
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05.04.02 - Profit & Loss Statement 2012 (in euros x 1000)
2012
2011
21,671
22,440
173
174
(1) Budget transferred
Education-based funding
Matching second flow of funds
Other budget transferred
Total budget
2,659
2,545
24,503
25,159
(2) Other income
Within the EUR
1,680
1,194
Within the EUR Holding Ltd.
1,324
1,257
External
Second flow of funds
Third flow of funds
1,421
Total other income Total income
1,415
3,918
4,343
8,343
8,209
32,847
33,368
(3) Personnel costs
Wages and Salaries
16,110
15,156
Pension expenses
2,311
2,025
Social charges
1,653
1,440
Other staff expenses
1,753
1,658
Temporary workers and claimants
1,906
1,579
23,733
21,858
54
60
Total personnel costs
Depreciation Other expenses
(4) Within EUR
3,222
3,146
(5) Within EUR Holding bv
1,795
1,992
Total other expenses Total expenses
4,709
4,618
9,726
9,756
33,513
31,674
Result
-666
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1,694
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(6) External
05.04.03 - Balance sheet as at 31 December 2012 (in euros x 1000)
31-12-2012
31-12-2011
155
206
Assets Fixed assets
(7) Tangible fixed assets
Current assets
(8) Receivables, prepayments and accrued income
Liquid assets
Total assets
1,916
8,890
10,710
10,715
12,832
Liabilities
(9) Equity capital
(10) Long-term debts
1,670
6,917
7,604
17
678
612
Provisions
Current liabilities
(11) Debts, accruals and deferred income
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Total liabilities
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3,120
4,599
10,715
12,832
05.04.04 - Notes to the profit & loss statement and the balance sheet General information The profit and loss statement and balance sheet of ESE are shown. Financial transactions with other organisational divisions of the EUR and with private limited companies affiliated with ESE, which are subsidiaries of the EUR Holding B.V., are shown separately. The assets and liabilities are valued in accordance with the EURâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accounting principles 1. (1) Budget transferred The budget transferred comprises the share of the government contribution from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) received by the EUR and allocated to ESE (the first flow of funds). The model-based allocated budget consists partly of lump-sum amounts for teaching and research. Another part of this model-based budget is dependent on the volume realised on certain performance parameters, such as the number of first-year students, the number of Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degrees and the number of doctorates awarded. When calculating the performancedependent amounts, three-year averages are taken. This means that the funds allocated to ESE depends on the average of the parameters over the three years prior to the financial year. Besides the model-based budget, ESE is also allocated the matching of the EUR of Veni/Vidi/Vici grants as budget (matching second flow of funds). The other budgetary allocations concern, among other things, travel costs, non-EEA tuition fees, development of minors, the Alpha / Gamma funds and,
1
Reference is made to the annual financial report of the EUR.
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as in previous years, a contribution from the Executive Board to reform ESE.
(2) Other income The other income generated within EUR and EUR Holding BV. relates to the use of staff of ESE for activities of other organisational divisions of EUR (Group). These are primarily: • Providing education for the International Business Administration of the Rotterdam School of Management and for Health Economics of iBMG. • Payments from the private limited companies affiliated to ESE for: o Directorships of ESE staff at affiliated private limited companies; o Use of accommodation and from delivery of other services (such as I&T) o The use of ESE’s staff in post-initial education and commercial research projects. • Contributions from EUR Holding BV. for CSTO projects (Committee for the Promotion of Applied Research ESE will continue to receive income directly from the third flow of funds. The third-flow funds are provided under contracts with parties such as the European Union, as well as from tuition fees, chair funding and seconded staff members. Besides these forms of income, the third flow of funds comprises contributions from the Free University of Amsterdam (VU) and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) towards the funding of Tinbergen Institute. (3) Personnel costs The increases in wages and salaries, pension expenses and social charges are primarily due to a rise in academic staff and student assistants and personnel of ESE sold more holidays than previous years. ESE started an English-language Econometrics programme and needed more personnel for Managerial Economics. The increase in costs for temporary workers and claimants are due to replacements for illness and support ESE needed for Dutch-language education. Additionally, Tinbergen Institute required more temporary workers due to illness and replacements for personnel who left Tinbergen Institute. (4) Other expenses within EUR In 2012, 19% of these expenses comprised payments to ERIM. Accommodation www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report
expenses paid by ESE make up 14% of these expenses, the use of other central services and facilities make up 25%, the contribution to the University Library is 6%, hiring personnel from SSC HR&F is 12% and costs from other Schools make up 24% of the other expenses within the EUR. As far as accommodation is concerned, it should be noted that ESE is housed in a building owned by the EUR. ESE only pays accommodation expenses if it uses more than the standard floor area.
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(5) Other expenses within the EUR Holding Ltd. These are mostly the expenses of hiring staff from the private limited companies for teaching purposes at ESE. (6) Other external expenses About 33% of these expenses in 2012 were expenses of Tinbergen Institute (teaching expenses for MPhil students and PhD students, as well as expenses relating to (and for facilitating) research activities. In addition, 5% of the expenses were IT expenses, 3% for office equipment, 23% for business travel expenses, conference fees and representational expenses, 15% for outsourced activities such as printing and typesetting and legal advice and 22% for other office and general expenses. (7) Tangible fixed assets ESE adopts the rule that only investments in fixed assets with an acquisition price of more than â&#x201A;Ź12K are capitalised and written off over their economic life. The first depreciation is made in the year of purchase. The depreciation period depends on the type of equipment and varies from 3 to 25 years. The book value of the tangible fixed assets covers mostly equipment.
(in euros x 1000)
Furniture and equipment
Acquisition price 2011 945 Decline in value and depreciation at end 2011
- 739
Book value at end 2011 206 Investments 2012 3 - 54
Book value at end 2012
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Depreciation 2012
135
(8) Receivables, prepayments and accrued income Receivables are valued at nominal value. A provision for bad debts is made for receivables on external parties. Included under Receivables are: (in euros x1000)
2012
2011
Debtors external
345 597
Debtors EUR and EUR group 2
585 598
Other internal receivables EUR
55 26
Prepayments and accrued income
685 695
Total
1,670
1,916
(9) Equity capital The annual profit (loss) of -/- â&#x201A;Ź666K has resulted in equity capital of â&#x201A;Ź6,917K . (in euros x 1000)
Equity capital
Equity capital at year-end 2011 7,603 Profit (loss) for the financial year (2012) -666 Direct capital movements 3 -20 Book value at end 2012
6,917
(10) Long-term debts These relate to the share of the VU and the UvA in the assets of Tinbergen Institute. This procedure is the result of the cooperative agreement between the participating parties (EUR, VU, and UvA), which says that if the institute closes down, the remaining financial reserves and assets will be divided among the three faculties, in the proportion that had been adopted until then for
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payment of the fixed contributions of ESE to the institution.
2
The debtors ranked as EUR and EUR group are receivables from other organisational divisions of the EUR and private limited companies under the EUR Holding BV
3
The direct capital movement concerns the transfer, in accordance with university policy, of a part of the annual profit/loss of Tinbergen Institute, for which the ESE is the budget holder, to the long-term debt and an amount from central EUR for the KNAW program.
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(11) Short-term debts The composition of the short-term debts is as follows: (in euros x1000)
2012
Instalments received in advance for work in progress
1,456 908
External creditors
385 376
4
1,377 1,790
Other internal debts EUR
-1,761 93
Other external debts
59 67
Accruals and deferred income
1,604 1,365
Total
3,120
4
4,599
The creditors ranked as EUR and EUR group are receivables from other organisational divisions of the EUR and operating companies under the EUR Holding Ltd.
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EUR and EUR group creditors
2011
Interview
"A lot of my colleagues have children too. The sympathy I get from co-workers for trying to balance work and raising a child is a real support."
138
Assistant Professor in the department of Economics.
I studied economics at the University of Groningen. In addition to attending classes and taking exams, I also did some research with a professor. This first introduction to doing research got me enthusiastic and after graduating I started my PhD at Tilburg University. After my PhD I worked as a postdoc for Netspar for a year, doing mostly theoretical research on the effects of population ageing. Otto Swank then asked me to teach macroeconomics at ESE and offered me a tenure-track position. My time is divided between teaching and doing research. In general, there are four months in a year in which my main focus is on teaching, while the rest of the year it is on doing research. Children and research
The available budget allowed
A year ago, my son was
me to hire replacement for
born. The tenure track is a
one of the courses, but I
six-year contract. At the end,
still had to teach the other
you are evaluated on both
classes myself. This way, the
your educational results
budget allowed me to get
and the research you have
used to combining working
published. Taking time off
life with raising an infant, but
to take care of your child is
I couldn’t really regain the
facilitated by EUR through
time I lost doing research by
maternity leave and a budget
taking my maternity leave.
I mainly teach courses in
for a replacement for your
The fact that combining
my field of expertise –
teaching responsibilities. This
work and having children is
macroeconomics and public
gives you the time to focus
on the agenda is admirable.
economics – while my
on your research and be able
But the arrangements could
research efforts are shifting
to meet the requirements for
be improved by accounting
from my previous fields of
the number of publications.
for personal situations. A big
interest, theoretical research
Unfortunately, my maternity
plus of working at ESE is the
on population ageing, to
leave coincided with my
flexibility in hours, which
more empirical research. I’m
research period and when I
makes the day-to-day care
quite proud that this renewed
got back, I essentially had to
of a child much easier to
effort in empirical research
teach three courses.
manage.
resulted in a high-quality paper this year.
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Interview
Yvonne Adema
Interview
Ankimon Vernède Office Manager in the Department of Economics.
When I started working for ESE, I felt straight away ‘this is the place where I want to be and these are the people I want to work with; academics are my cup of tea!’ I started out as a secretary but eventually became an Office Manager, overseeing the day-to-day running of the department and assisting Professor Leo van den Berg in every possible way, concerning academic matters like teaching, science, research, and assisting in all managerial duties. The Department of Urban, Port and Transport Economics repositioned itself within EUR and when I got offered the position of Office Manager in the Department of Economics I was happy to accept this new challenge after a warm goodbye from RHV BV. Office Managing
to be told what can and
I was now responsible for
should be improved, but the
two additional challenges:
system works well. Not only
finances and managing our
in situations at work, but in
secretariat and the Assistant
daily life as well. I attended
Office Manager. Thanks to
one of the courses with the
ESE I took a 3-day course
four ESE Office Managers,
outside the university.
and it was kind of special to
I learned about interactions
be vulnerable in front of each
between individuals and
other, to learn and to laugh
within groups and was
together. It strengthened our
My first job interview with
handed some simple tools
bond and our trust.
Professor Otto Swank set
to improve communication
I am proud to work for
the tone for our pleasant
and manage people. I got
ESE; I really enjoy my work,
future relationship. As in
to know my colleagues
appreciate all my colleagues
my previous job, trust, hard
and learned to appreciate
and want to contribute in my
work, humour and integrity
their individual skills and
own way to the EUR being a
are key ingredients. Otto told
to approach everyone
top university.
me: ‘I want the academics to
differently, so that I can see
spend as much of their time
to it that we work closely as
doing research and teaching;
a team in a good atmosphere.
support of the running of the
The feedback courses at ESE
department is for you and our
also contributed greatly: it
joint responsibility’.
wasn’t always very pleasant
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Interview
"My team and I strive to provide better than excellent support to our department, with a smile on our faces."
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Interview
"After the reorganisation, we had a new team and a lot of work. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very motivating to see how everyone put aside differences and truly workes as a team. "
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Secretary in the department of Business Economics.
As a secretary I get to work with everybody in the organisation, from students to professors, from colleagues in other departments to teachers from abroad. One of the things I really like about my job at ESE is the diversity of the work and the people. On top of that, there is an organisation-wide awareness and willingness to improve our level of service. ESE also actively encourages its employees to develop their skills. One of the ways this is done is by offering the course Effective Assertive Communication to me and my colleagues. I finished this course a few months ago and I really see that it has an effect on my day-to-day work. frustrated student before
secretarial offices were
trying to help him out makes
combined, which has made
the conversation so much
collaboration a little more
more fulfilling for both sides.
challenging. However, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m
One funny thing I learned
very proud to be able to say
was that your pros can also
we worked very hard. And
be your cons. For instance,
more importantly, we worked
I am very enthusiastic by
together. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a new team,
nature, which I see as a pro.
with several members who
But this also means that I say
have been working at ESE for
yes to new ideas too often
many years. Despite everyone
It taught me that, when
and too quickly. The course
having their own opinions on
communicating with
taught me to consider new
how things should be done,
someone, you first need to
developments calmly at first,
we got together, pulled up
be on the same page so you
and then communicate my
our sleeves, and got things
can actually understand
enthusiasm in a realistic
done.
each other. This really works
context.
when you put your mind to it. Even though I already
Cooperation
learned this concept implicitly
The course in communication
through years of experience,
is one of the examples of
the course makes you more
how we constantly work
conscious of it and helps you
on improvement in our
to actually implement it.
department. But it is part of a bigger mentality. After
Taking a little time to show
last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reorganisation
that you understand a
of the departments, several
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Interview
Trudy van Florestein
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ANNUAL 2012
REPORT The digital version of our annual report can be found on our website: www.ese.eur.nl/annual_report. Here you can find more information on several subjects as well as photo impressions and film clips. Additional information, photo impressions and film clips are indicated by
P.O. Box 1738 | NL-3000 DR Rotterdam | T +31 (0)10 408 1377 | E info@ese.eur.nl
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